THE MULTIPLE ORIGIN OF HOUSES AND PONIES. 439 



England seem to intlicnte that (Inrino- the Pleistoc(Mie ])erio(l several 

 species of horses rangvd over the Avest of Eiiroin'. J'lie Pleistocene 

 beds of Essex have yielded bones and teeth of a hiri>vdieaded, heavily 

 l)iiilt horse, Avhich [)rob:ibly sometimes measured nioi'e than 14 hands 

 (5() inches) at the withers. From the "'elephant bed" at Bri<>htt)n 

 portions of a slender-limbed horse have been recovered, and Kent's 

 Cave, near Torquay, has yielded nnmerous fragments of two varieties 

 or species which di tiered somewhat from the Essex and Brighton 

 species. The " elephant-bed '" horse has liitherto been described as 

 very small, bnt if one is to judge by the bones in the British Museum 

 it may very well have readied a height of 50 or even 52 inches (12h 

 or 13 hands). The Kent's Cave horses weiv probably from 13 to 14 

 hands high. One in its build approached the Essex horse, the other 

 the slender-limbed species of the "" elepliant bed '' at Brighton. If 

 there were two or more species in Pleistocene times in th.e soutli of 

 England (tlien part of the Continent), it is probable that yet other 

 sj^ecies inhabited south and middle Europe and the north of Africa. 



As already mentioned, liorses were extremely al)undant in the 

 south of France in the not very remote post-dllacial period." Evi- 

 dence of the existence of large herds we have at Solutre, where for 

 a number of year-s there was an open-air Pahcolithic encampment. 

 Near the Solutre encampment (which lies in the vicinity of the 

 Saone, about midw^ay between Chalons and Lyon), the l)ones of 

 horses'' and other beasts of the chase were sufficiently abundant to 

 form a sort of rampart around part of the settlement. It is difficult 

 to say how many s})ecies of horses are represented at Solutre, but 

 there seems no doul)t that the majority belonged to a stout, long- 

 headed, but short-limbed animal, measuring about 54 inches (13.2 

 hands) at the withers. Though of smaller size, the typical Solutre 

 horse had nearly as large joints and hoofs as the Essex Pleistocene 

 species. Like the Essex horse, it seems to have been specially adapted 

 for living in low-lying, marshy ground in the vicinity of forests, 

 and for feeding during })ai't of the year on coarse grasses, shrubs, 

 roots, and other hard substances, for the crushing of which large 

 teeth, set in long powerful jaws, were indispensable. 



That lightly built as well as stout species existed in ])ost-Glacial 

 as in Pleistocene times is made evident by bones found in caves and 

 by drawings and sculj^tui-es made by Palaeolithic hunters. Of the 

 existence of two kinds of horses in post-CJlacial times, pi'actically 

 identical with the stout and slender-liuibed l^leistoc(Mie sjiecies, the 

 cave of Reilhac, near Lyon, is especially eloquent. It is, however, 



« An account of the proliistorie horses of Europe, by Dr. TJohcrt Munro. will 

 be found in the Archieological .Tonrnal, vol. lix, No. 2:^.4. 



''Toussalnt, of the Lyons Votoriuary (VtllciJe, beliovcs tliat at Solntn'' there 

 were fragments of at least 1(M),(K)0 horses, all of which had "been used as food. 



