NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 183 



tions mentioned or not. Generally, however, we have been able to ascertain 

 where the fossils belong, which we have had the opportunity of examining, 

 from the fact that the greater number were obtained from the deposits re- 

 ferred to in digging into them some distance from the Ashley River. 



" The collections coatain remains of the horse, ox, sheep, hog and dog, which 

 I feel strongly persuaded, with the exception of many of those of the first men- 

 tioned animal, are of recent date, and have become mingled with the true fos- 

 sils of the post-pliocene and eocene formations, where these have been exposed 

 on the banks of the Ashley River and its tributaries. In regard to the remains 

 of the horse, from the facts stated in the account given of them in the succeed- 

 ing pages, I think it will be conceded that this animal inhabited the United 

 States during the post-pliocene period, contemporarily with the mastodon, me- 

 galonyx, and the great broad fronted bison. 



" Many of the mammalian remains are of recent animals, or at least are un- 

 distinguishable from the corresponding parts of the latter ; and if they are 

 not accidental occupants of the post-pliocene deposit, are highly interesting, 

 as indicating their contemporaneous existence with many species and genera 

 now extinct.* 



"It appears to be quite well authenticated that the horse, which is now so 

 extensively distributed, both in a wild and domestic condition, throughout 

 North and South America, did not inhabit these continents at the time of their 

 discovery by Europeans. With this fact in view, in conjunction with the cir- 

 cumstance that animal remains of late periods may become accidental occu- 

 pants of earlier geological formations, we should require strong evidence to be 

 advanced before it is admitted that the Horse belonged to an ancient fauna of 

 the western world. At the present time the evidence appears to be sufficiently 

 ample to justify the latter conclusion, and it is further sustained by the dis- 

 covery, in the same part of the world, of the remains of two species of the 

 closely allied genus Hipparion. 



"Remains of the horse, discovered in Brazil, Buenos-Ayres, Chile, have been 

 indicated by Dr. Lund, Prof. Owen, M. Weddell, and M. Gervais. These re- 

 mains exhibit no well marked characters distinguishing them from correspond- 

 ing portions of the skeleton of the recent horse, and from a comparison of the 

 figures and descriptions which have been given of most of them, together with 

 some remarks of the latter author, it is doubtful whether they belong to more 

 than a single species, the Equus neogceus of Dr. Lund. 



" Prof. Buckland and Sir John Richardson have described remains of the 

 horse, discovered in association with those of the elephant, moose, reindeer, 

 and musk-ox, in the ice cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, Arctic America. 



" In the United States, remains of the Horse, chiefly consisting of teeth, have 

 been noticed by Drs. Mitchell,f Harlan,J and DeKay, but these gentlemen have 

 neither given descriptions nor figures by which to identify the specimens. 

 Some .of the latter are stated to have been found in the vicinity of Neversink 

 Hills, New Jersey ; others in the excavation for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 

 near Georgetown, District of Columbia ; and some in the latter tertiary deposit 

 on the Neuse River, in the vicinity of Newbern, North Carolina. Dr. DeKay, 

 in speaking of such remains, says, " they resemble those of the common horse, 

 but from their size apparently belonged to a larger animal," and he refers 

 them to a species with the name of Equus major. 



" Dr. R. W. Gibbes|| has given information of the discovery of teeth of the 



* Remains of the Tapir, Peccary and Capybara present a similar association of life to 

 that now confined to Souih America. 



t Catalogue of Organic Remains, 1826, 7, 8. 

 \ Med. and Phys. Researches, 1835, 267. 

 '4 Zoology. New York. pi. 1, Mammalia, 108. 

 II Proc. Amer. Assoc, 1850, 66. 



1859.] 



