384 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



rig. 28. 



AN ANIMAL OF THE HORSE SPECIES, ENOEAVED ON BONE. 



Grotto of Thayingen, Switzerland. 



Collection, Piette. 



Whether they were ancestors of the horse or not, as is said by Prof. 

 Edward 1). Cope in his celebrated "Phenaeodus PrimoKvis," has never 

 been satisfactorily determined. There has been found, in the Grotto of 

 Thayingen in Switzerland, near Lake Constance, an engraved bone (fig. 



28) representing an animal 

 of the horse kind, but dif- 

 ferent from any known 

 variety. It may ha ve been 

 a horse, the drawing of 

 which owes its peculiar- 

 ity to the inability of the 

 artist, biit one can hardly 

 think so, for, while in 

 form, shape, and general 

 appearance this might be, 

 yet he could hardly have 

 so misrepresented the tail. 

 It is, however, remarkable 

 that in all those peculiar- 

 ities wherein it differs from the horse it should be found to correspond 

 with the anoplotherium, an animal belonging to the Upper Miocene and 

 reported by Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins ^ as having been found in western 

 Europe. There is a similarity between them 

 which, to say the least, is remarkable. Fig. 29 

 represents a horse on a fragment scarcely more 

 than an inch long. It was found at Bruniquel, 

 and the original is in the British Museum. Horses 

 were frequently represented. They are all j^ecu- 

 liar, but the peculiarities are reproduced in every 

 engraving. Their heads are large beyond the 

 proportions of the modern horse; they have hog 

 manes bristling upright; the tail is thin and small, and stands out 

 nearly straight. These were attributed to the peculiarities of the 

 artist rather than to the horse, but since the discovery and reconstruc- 

 tion of the skeleton, notably that 



by M. E. Chaiitre in the Zoologic 

 Museum in Lyons, these peculiari- 

 ties are found to belong to the 

 animal and to justify the fidelity 

 of the artist. Eig. 30 represents 

 one of the prehistoric pony horses, 

 with large head, carried low, big 

 It is on one of the engraved bones from 



Fig. 29. 



HORSE ENGRAVED ON BONE. 



Cavern of Bruniquel (Tarn- 

 et-Garoune), France. 



British Museum. Natural size. 



Pig. 30. 

 PONY HORSE. 



From one of the Dordogne caves. 



^ ?-.) natural size. 



muzzle, straight back, rat tail. 

 Dordogne of which we have seen so many. 

 Batons de commandem-ent. — These are of stag or reindeer horn, with 



' Early Man iu Britain, p. 33. 



