horses, and hollow-horned ruminants migrated, on land since submerged near Behring's Straits, from Siberia into North America, and thence, on land since submerged in the West

CHILE.

Indies, into South America, where for a time they mingled with the forms characteristic of that southern continent, and have since become extinct.

The horse was first landed at Buenos Ayres in 1537, and the colony being then for a time deserted, the horse ran wild. In 1580, only forty-three years afterward, we hear of them at the Strait of Magellan!

THE MULE.

WHEN about half-way up the Portillo Pass, we met a large party with seventy loaded mules. It was interesting to hear the wild cries of the muleteers, and to watch the long descending string of the animals; they appeared so diminutive, there being nothing but the bleak mountains with which they could be compared. The madrina (or godmother) is a most important personage: she is an old, steady mare, with a little bell round her neck; and wher ever she goes, the mules, like good children, follow her. The affection of these animals for their madrinas saves infinite trouble. If several large troops are turned into one field to graze, in the morning the muleteers have only to lead the madrinas a little apart, and tinkle their bells; and, although there may be two or three hundred together, each mule immediately knows the bell of its own madrina, and comes to her. It is nearly impossible to lose an old mule; for if detained for several hours by force, she will, by the power of smell, like a dog, track out her companions (or rather the madrina, for, according to the muleteer, she is the chief ob

URUGUAY.

ject of affection. I believe I am right, however, in saying that any animal with a bell will serve as a madrina). In a troop, each animal carries, on a level road, a cargo weighing four hundred and sixteen pounds, but in a mountainous country one hundred pounds less; yet with what delicate, slim limbs, without any proportional bulk of muscle, these animals support so great a burden! The mule always appears to me a most surprising animal. That the offspring of the horse and the ass should possess more reason, memory, obstinacy, social affection, powers of muscular endurance, and length of life, than either of its parents, seems to indicate that art has here outdone nature.

THE OX.

THE chief trouble with an estancia (grazing farm) is driving the cattle twice a week to a central spot, in order to make them tame and to count them. This latter operation would be thought difficult where there are ten or fifteen thousand head together. It is managed on the principle that the cattle invariably divide themselves into little troops (tropillas) of from forty to a hundred. Each troop is recognized by a few peculiarly marked animals, and its number is known; so that, one being lost out of ten thou sand, it is perceived by its absence from one of the tropi llas. During a stormy night the cattle all mingle together, but the next morning the tropillas separate as before; so that each animal must know its fellow out of ten thousand others.