Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1892 — Wild Mustangs in Pennsylvania. [ARTICLE]

Wild Mustangs in Pennsylvania.

On Black's Island, five miles from the City of Philadelphia, on tho Delaw:- •■> Bivor, are a drove of eighty or more unturned mustangs, not ono of which has ever been shod or touched with a strap of harness. The island is a bleak waste of meadow land, covered by a heavy growth of thick grass. Here the mustangs live, as wild and uneared for as though on the Western plains. The horses are owned by Messrs. Richard and Lewis Wistur, two wealthy and eccentric Philadelphians. In 1873 they took a couple of Chincotoaguo mares up from the South mid placed them on Black's furm, just below Fort Mifllin. Both tho mares were iu foal, and they were turned out on the island and allowed to run wild. From that beginning the herd has increased us stated. The ponies are at perfect liberty nil the year round,and are without sholter in winter us well as summer. In fact, they are to all intents and purposes, as wild as the wildest mustangs in tho West. The co'ts lire foaled without shelter of any kind, and grow up strong, rugged and as wild as though hundreds of miles from civilization. During the winter, when the ground is coveroJ with snow, the horses ure obliged to paw holes in the snow in order to get nt the dead grass undernouth. After the manner of wild horses they divide thomselves into smaller herds, each having a stallion for a leader, i There appears to be a rivalry between these herds, and royal battles are waged between the stullions. In color the horses are mostly bays, creams and piebalds, ai d range from thirteen to fifteen hands. Although the Wistar brothers have not visited tho island for thirteen years, they steadily refuse to part with uny of the ponies under any consMorat'.on.—[Philadelphia Record.