Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

BUIXS- — HORSES — FOXES. 249 sand cattle, and four thousand horses; but there were no means of ascertaining their number, except by comparing the accounts of the gavicho colonists, who were accustomed to pursue them, not only for ordinary food or for their hides, but even for their tongues alone, not taking the trouble to carry off more of the animal so wantonly slaughtered.* The wild cattle are very large and very fat, and the bulls are really for- midable animals, perhaps among the largest and most savage of their race. At Buenos Ayres, the ordinary weight of a bull's hide is less than fifty pounds, but the weight of such hides in the East Falkland has exceeded eighty pounds. The horses look well while galloping about wild, but the gauchos say they are not of a good breed, and will not bear the fatigue of an ordinary day's work, such as a horse at Buenos Ayres will go through without difficulty. Perhaps their ' softness,' as it is there called, may be owing to the food they get, as well as to the breed. The wild pigs on East Falkland are of along- legged, ugly kind ; but some of those on Saunders Island and other places about West Falkland are derived from short- legged Chinese pigs. The only quadruped apparently indige- nous is a large fox, and as about this animal there has been much discussion among naturalists, and the specimens now in the British Museum were deposited there by me, I am induced to make a few remarks upon it. * " The settlers, when they abandoned the eastern island, left behind them several horses and horned cattle, which have increased so much, that, on going a few miles into the country, droves of both animals may be seen, I have taken several of the bullocks by shooting them. They sire generally ferocious, and will attack a single person; and thus, those who hunt them are enabled to get within pistol-shot of them by the fol- lowing stratagem. Four or five men advance in a line upon the animal, and, by appearing only as one person, it stands ready to attack, till within one hundred yards, when the hunters spread themselves, and fire, endea- vouring to shoot the bullock either in the head or in the fore-shoulder. The horses will also attack a single person, and their mode of doing so is by forming a circle round him, and prancing upon him ; but by means of a musquet they may be readily dispersed." — Weddell's Voyage, pp. 102, 103.