evening of the latter day the white vapours settled down on the tops of the "Grampians," and betokened a glorious day on the morrow for the old Saint (St. Swithin); indeed, as the shades of evening closed around us, a few drops of rain fell, and we anticipated an unruly deluge.

On the morrow, 15th (St. Swithin's), we were up with the lark, and observed that the white misty vapour hung heavy on the mountains; but by 9 A.M. a gentle breeze began to blow over the heath-clad hills, and a more lovely day never beamed from the heavens, and we again roamed for many miles over the "bonny, bonny moors ;" but, alas! alas! found matters, as regards grouse, far from what they were in days of yore. On this lovely day we had a range, through many a deep glen and dark corrie, and it was long after sun-down ere we reached our temporary bothie at the foot of the Grampians. The Highlanders have a saying, that if the deer get into the forest, on this eventful even, with their antlers dry, we shall have fine dry weather for the next six weeks; and if there be any truth in the saying, it never began under more favourable circumstances, as a most lovely evening closed in; the shades of which had scarcely left us, ere bright Luna shed her silvery light o'er the scene, and recalled to memory those beautiful lines of the great Bard of the North

"Boon nature scatter'd, free and wild,

Each plant or flower, the mountain's child.
Here eglantine embalmed the air,
Hawthorn and hazel mingled there;
The primrose pale, and violet flower,
Found in each cleft a narrow bower;
Foxglove and nightshade side by side,
Emblems of punishment and pride,
Grouped in dark hues with every stain,
The weather-beaten crags retain.
With boughs that quake at every breath
Grey birch and aspen wept beneath;
Aloft, the ash and warrior oak
Cast anchor in the refted rock;

And, higher yet, the pine tree hung

His shattered trunk, and frequent flung,
Where seemed the clifts to meet on high,
His boughs athwart the narrowed sky.
Highest of all, where white peaks glanced,
Where glistening streamers waved and danced,
The wanderer's eye could barely view
The summer heaven's delicious blue;
So wondrous wild, the whole might seem
The scenery of a fairy dream."

"On the 16th and Sunday we again rested from our labours ;" and on the 17th hunted a portion of moors in the neighbourhood of the farfamed forest of Glenartney; and on the south face of these grouse grounds we found that the birds were a leetle stronger on the wing, and a few more in each brood, but nothing to be compared with bygone years. Blackgame have bred well this season on the front range of the Grampians; they have not been so plentiful for many years, and we are happy to add that the great cock of the north-the "capercaillie"-are spreading over the length and breadth of the land.

Now, from the foregoing report on the coming grouse season, it will be observed that they will be sadly deficient in numbers from former

years, but they will be better than they were last season-I mean on the Grampian range, and where they suffered so terribly from disease. In due course you shall receive a report of our doings on the “ opening day;" till then, farewell.

Grampians, July 18th.

HAWTHORN.

P.S. Since writing the above I have just had communicated to me, from authority that can be relied on-yes, from those who have had ocular demonstration on the subject that in the south of Scotland the grouse are to be good this season. In the upper parts of Lanarkshire, on the Douglas Castle moors, the grouse have bred well, the broods are numerous, and strong on the wing, and at this present writing are August-looking birds, and fully ready for the game-bag. In all that district of country my informant states that the birds have fairly recovered from the destructive disease that made such havoc among them three years ago.

I only wish it had been my pleasing task to have said so much of the first range of the Grampians; but we must hope for brighter and better days to come.

Grampians, July 19.

H.

THE HORSE.

BY G. W. B.

(Continued.)

The horse, like every other animal, in form, in size, and in colour, becomes changed when domesticated. This change must not be viewed as a mere fantastic circumstance, but as designed from the creation; no doubt from the necessity that exists of there being some obvious and indisputable mark, by which man, in a social state, can distinguish between his own and his neighbour's property. How remarkably and beautifully this is exemplified in the rabbit. Take a thousand wild rabbits, and the most observant eye can scarcely detect a solitary trait which distinguishes one from another; but let these animals be taken under the special care of man, and made his exclusively, and forthwith the brownish clayey colour shades off into every colour of the prism; and if this great change takes place in an animal so productive and so comparatively valueless as the rabbit, how much more useful and necessary is the change, after man has thrown his lasso over the hitherto free-born rover of the prairies of South America, and announced to his neighbours that they may follow his example, but that this animal and his offspring are for his sole use and necessities, for

"Connubio jungam stabili propriamque dicabo.”

Although climate alone is sufficient to produce remarkable changes in the external forms of animals; yet, as all are equally influenced by it, all change alike; and therefore, although the marks are sufficiently apparent to declare the animals to be from different countries, yet these marks would be useless to the natives, if, on domestication, the marks remained unchanged. For even in this country, where varieties of horses and dogs are so numerous, we sometimes meet with them so similar in

every way, that they have been claimed by persons who honestly and sincerely believed them to be their own property. Our courts of justice have had sometimes great difficulty in endeavouring to decide which was the real Simon Pure. On a trial, some thirty years past, about the ownership of a horse, where the testimony and circumstances were equally balanced, his lordship at last enquired of the plaintiff and defendant whether the horse had any peculiar habit or trick, for if so, it could be tested before the jury, and would be regarded by him as incontrovertible evidence; "for," added his lordship (Bushe), 66 some forty years since, the ownership of a pig was disputed; and the evidence became so conflicting, that my predecessor almost made up his mind to sentence the innocent and unconscious causa belli' to be hanged— that is, after it was dead-and then, like Solomon, to have it partitioned between the claimants; when the real owner fortunately bethought himself of demonstrating his proprietorship as clearly as any proposition in Euclid he told his lordship that his pig had a trick of rushing at him in case the broomstick was flourished before him. As none of the pigs in the South of Ireland had hitherto undergone this mode of education, his lordship regarded it as a peculiar mode and every way worthy a trial. The four-legged animal was instantly summoned to court, and, to prove his true piggish nature, entered tail foremost. Judge, jury, and spectators surveyed him as a most unbiassed witness. At the very first twirl of the broom, the jury were more than convinced, for he upset five or six of them in his hurry to revenge this gross insult." The horse jury, as well as the owners, snatched at the suggestion, and each, confident in the justice of their cause, tested the horse's memory: the plaintiff won by telling the horse to search for bread in his pocket: but the sagacious animal having poked in his nose was disappointed, although his master was fully satisfied.

Almost every country has its own peculiar breed so distinct as to be easily recognizable; but there are certain races to which all are traceable. These are the wild horse or tarpan, of a bay colour; the white; the black; and the dun colour, from Asia. There is a distinct breed in India, in the neighbourhood of the Himalaya Mountains, and another found only in the north of Africa.

The wild horse is frequently confounded by writers with the feralthe difference is, that the former race has never been under the control of man; while the latter is descended from a race once domesticated. The herds occupying the Ukraine represent the former; those possessing the Pampas of America, the latter. Many writers maintain that all horses termed wild are only feral. As their most conclusive proof, they point to South America, where numerous herds roam over the vast prairies of that continent, which are admitted by all to have been introduced by the Spaniards on its discovery. Certainly the Spanish authors, in their history of the Conquest of America, make no mention of Montezuma having brought cavalry into the field of battle; nor are representations of this now almost universal animal to be found on any of the paintings taken from that country, and now preserved in Madrid. They conclude also that the free and independent troops of horses, enjoying the Steppes of Tartary, and found from the Ukraine to the farthest part of Chinese Tartary, must also have had domesticated progenitors; and they assign the year 1696, when Azof was besieged, as the era of their

introduction.

But these are weak arguments, and contradicted by other evidence. Herodotus speaks of the wild horse in these localities, and it is a well known fact that geldings were employed at the siege of Azof. Stallions are too quarrelsome and too noisy for war, and cannot be depended on in case of a surprise for this reason the roving Arabs, who always wish to come down on their enemies unperceived, employ mares only.

Admitting the race to be feral so far as America is concerned, yet there is no doubt that even there, in ages long since passed, the horse was a denizen of that distant country. The geologists have found his bones in the alluvial deposits, commingled with those of the megatherium, and most probably belonging to the same age of the world.

To maintain that the horse was always in subjection to man, would be to maintain what has never been proved, or is capable of proof; for, like all other animals, he must have been free at least at the creation. What may have become of him on emerging from Noah's ark, sacred history does not mention: he may have been then domesticated, or he may not; at least, the fact would prove nothing in support of the American theory. After the deluge all animals must have been confined to the old world; and accordingly neither in the vast countries of America, nor in the continental island of Australia, has the horse been found wild. Vessels large enough to transport a horse are of comparatively a late date. It may be then asked how the Buffalo got into America? but it might as well be asked how did man? The probability is that America was first inhabited by some of the tribes of the northern part of Asia; for the passage is very short over Bherring's Straits, and might be easily accomplished in a canoe in summer, and over the ice in winter. The horse to man is a luxury, the cow a necessary, and therefore the Indian would drive before him the animal most necessary to his wants. The existence of a genuine wild ass has never been doubted, although at present, like the horse, he is domesticated in almost every country. Neither he, nor indeed any of the equidæ, have been found in the islands of the southern ocean.

Since the introduction of the horse into America, many tribes, like the Tartars, have become equestrians; and this fact proves how similar are men's ideas in every age and every climate under similar circumstances. They have never had any communication with the old world, yet the horse is turned to the same purposes-the milk, while living; the flesh, when dead: their business is transacted on horseback (the lazy rascals!); and their favourite horses repose with them side by side in the same grave. It is a fortunate circumstance for our government that the New Zealanders are unacquainted with the use of the horse, for with this animal they could come down in overwhelming numbers, and as speedily make good a retreat.

There exists among one Indian tribe an amiable superstition, which I very much wish could be instilled into our cabmen, butcher boys, et hoc genus omne; it is that the souls of horses will rise in judgment against unmerciful masters. The smell of the horse in the wild state is extraordinary; in passing over swamps it enables him to detect the possible paths; and travellers in South America have noticed with surprise this astonishing property. To distinguish a swampy from a solid path by the olfactory nerves would almost induce you to credit the mes

K

merists, when they gravely assert that they can read small print with the point of their elbow or the back of their head. Their sight is also piercing, hereditary no doubt, the result of cultivation from necessity. The Cossacks declare that even the point of a spear seen at a great distance on the horizon behind a bush, makes a whole troop halt, and causes a reconnoitering party to be sent forward.

A curious fact is, how seldom horses lie down to sleep. Travellers assert that the wild horse is never known to lie down. The necessity of the recumbent position for sleep in man is owing to his peculiar formation. In man the head is placed above and at a distance from the heart-in almost every other animal it is on the same plane. The necessity of sleep arises from a necessity of renewing the nervous fluid which has been exhausted by the employment of the senses, the exertion of the muscles, and in man by the use of his intellectual faculties; this renovation takes place in the brain, and the fluid is generated from the blood. The flow of the blood to the brain is, according to the laws of hydraulics, favoured by the recumbent position; man must therefore lie down. But the necessity does not exist in the horse; for, in the first place, the heart is already on a level with the head, and he has merely to permit the muscles of the head and neck to relax, in order to make the head assume the position most favourable for the purpose—a depending one. Moreover there is no fatigue, as in man, while supporting himself on his legs; the feet are broad, and placed so far outward as readily to support the body; the centre of gravity falls in the central line between the legs, while in man, although the centre of gravity falls between his feet, yet as the spine or solid frame-work has several curves, the muscles must be fatigued in endeavouring to preserve a straight line, until at length becoming exhausted, the body falls to the ground. The exertion of a muscle is dependent on the will, but the will cannot be exercised during sleep; and as muscular exertion is necessary to keep the human body in the upright position, it therefore follows that this position cannot be maintained during sleep.

So numerous did the feral horses in South America become soon after their introduction by Pizarro and his merciless band, that many doubted of their original country; but their Spanish origin is evident to any one acquainted with the natural history of the horse. Cortez introduced them to Mexico; Pizarro to Peru; the Portuguese to Brazil. Their colour is mostly a bay brown: some are pied and grey, but a black is not seen more than once in a few thousands. They are fully capable of defending themselves from any of the carnivora, for the stallions form a dense mass, and rising on the haunches, strike down their enemy with their fore feet, and then charging on him, trample him to death. Man alone is almost the only formidable enemy the proprietors of these almost boundless plains have to dread. They are too numerous to be attacked either by the jaguar or puma, the only dangerous carnivora of the feline species in America. As the horses live in an open plain, they cannot be surprised by these animals. They have abundance of food, a genial clime, and no enemies; their rapid increase need cause no surprise. Moreover, the natives, like our pheasant-shooting sportsmen, spare the females, casting their lassos over the males only. These, when captured, are ridden severely, and again restored to freedom, to be recaptured when necessary. But the great Architect and Ruler of the universe has appointed a means of keeping their numbers within limits.