_Basil._ But the young cattle helped her, for they pushed the bear with their horns. _Brian._ Please to tell us about wild horses. _Hunter._ The hordes or bands of wild horses that abound in some of the prairies, are supposed to be the offspring of Spanish horses, brought to Mexico by Europeans. They are extremely shy, keen in their sight and swift of foot, so that to come up with them, except by surprise, is no easy thing. I have seen them in great numbers from the brow of a bluff, or have peeped at them cautiously from a ravine. _Austin._ What kind of horses are they; and of what colour? _Hunter._ Some of them are fine animals, but in general they are otherwise. Stunted and coarse in appearance, they are of various colours--bay, chestnut, cream, gray, piebald, white and black, with long tails, fetlocks, top-knots and manes. _Brian._ How do they catch them? _Hunter._ In different ways. Sometimes a well-mounted Indian, armed with his rifle, follows a horde of horses, until he can get a fair shot at the best among them. He aims at the top of the neck, and if he succeeds in striking the high gristle there, it stuns the animal for the moment, when he falls to the ground without being injured. This is called _creasing_ a horse: but a bad marksman would kill, and not crease, the noble animal he seeks to subdue. _Austin._ What other way is there of catching wild horses? for that seems to be a very bad one. _Basil._ It is a very bad way. They ought not to shoot them. _Hunter._ They are much more commonly taken with the _lasso_; which is a thong at least a dozen yards long, ending in a noose. This the Indians throw, at full gallop, over the head of the flying steed they wish to secure. Rarely do they miss their aim. When a horse is thus caught, the hunter leaps from his steed, and lets out the lasso gradually, choking his captive till he is obliged to stop: he then contrives to hopple or tie his fore-legs; to fasten the lasso round his lower jaw; to breathe in his nostrils, and to lead him home. _Austin._ Breathe in his nostrils! Why, what does he do that for? _Hunter._ Because experience has taught him, that it does much towards rendering his captive more manageable. It is said, that if an Indian breathes freely into the nostrils of a wild young buffalo on the prairie, the creature will follow him with all the gentleness and docility of a lamb. _Brian._ Well! that does appear strange! _Hunter._ There is one animal, which the Indians, the hunters and trappers sometimes meet with, that I have not mentioned. It is the cougar, or panther, or American lion; for it goes by all these names. Now and then it is to be seen in the thick forests of the west; but, being a sad coward, it is not so much dreaded as it otherwise would be. _Brian._ I should not much like to meet a cougar.