216 ,' 'v \ >i \ . On the Fossil Boms ^^xr-\\. yl:. ' 



dmpedft with' hoofs, whiqh .l)ave been foivnd in the fossil 

 state; and our task will be the easier, as they have been dug 

 up.frohi loose soils only, for ,the most part of recent for- 

 mation j and such of their remains as have been collected, 

 canwot enable us to distinguish them from living species. 



Article T. Fossil Bones of Horses. 



These are as common in loose strata as the bones of any 

 other large animal, and yet little mention has been made 

 of them in workfe on fossil bones; either because their pre- 

 sence was regarded as a very simple occurrence^ not de- 

 serving of attention, or because they were not recognized 

 as being the bones of horses. 



There are various proofs of this last oversight,which would 

 appear very extraordinary if we were not aware how super- 

 ficially fossils and petrifactions have been examined. 



Thus we find in the Traile des Monstres of Aldrovandus, 

 published by Bernier, p. 37? two horse's teeth given as the 

 teeth of giants, while in the Museum metallicum of this 

 author, published by Ambrosinus^ p. 830, teeth of the^same 

 animal are represented correctly. 



In another memoir we have said that Lang, in his His- 

 toria Lapidum Jiguratorum Helvetice, tab. XI./". 1, 2, had 

 taken a horse's tooth for the tooth of a hippopotamus. 



We may add that Kundmann has engraved others, without 

 knowing what to make of them {Rar. Nat. et Art, tab. IF. 

 f. 4 and 5) ; and that Walch, who bad received them from 

 Quedlimbourg, confines himself to remarking their resem- 

 blance with those of Lang and Kundmann, without endea- 

 vouring to determine them more precisely [Monumens de 

 Knorr, II. sect. II. page 152). 



The number of authors who have been more adventurous 

 is very small ; such as Bourguet, who quotes a single jaw- 

 tooth found at a depth of 60 feet, on digging a well near 

 Modena {Traite des Petri ficaiions) ; and Kome de Tlsle, 

 who reckons in the number of the subjects in the Cabinet 

 of Davila, a fossil horse's tooth in its alveolus, near Caii- 

 stadt. {Cat. de Davila, III, page 230). 



It is certainly to this silence. oV most naturalists, with 

 respect to the fossil bones i>f horses, that we are indebted 

 for the silence preserved by M. Faujas on the same subject 

 in his Geologic, although he nnght have lakt-n great advan- 

 tage of it to support his favourite opinion respecting the 

 identity of fossil animals with those of the present tinjc. 



In fact, the fossil bones of horses cannot be distinguished 

 from the bones of living horses 3 and nevertheless we find 



them 



