THE MTTLTTPT.E ORKUN OF PIORSES AND PONTES. 439 



England scorn to indicate thai (liirin<i- the Pleistocene jxTiod several 

 species of iiorses raniicd over the west of Europe. riie Pleistocene 

 beds of Essex liave yielded bones and teeth of a lar<2;edieaded, heavily 

 built liorse, which probably sometimes nieasni-ed more than 1 1 hands 

 (:>(; inches) at the withers. Enmi the " eK'i)hant bed" at liriaiiton 

 portions of a slenderdimbed horse hav(> been recovered, and Kent's 

 Cave, neai- Torquay, has yielded numerous fra<?ments of two varieties 

 or species which di tiered somewhat from the lOssex and Brighton 

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

 very small, but if one is to jiid^e by the bones in the British Museum 

 it may very well have reached a lieight of 50 or even 52 inches (12* 

 or i;^ hands). The Kent's Cave horses were probably from V.) to 14 

 hands hioh. One in its build approached the P^ssex horse, the other 

 the slender-limbed species of the "elephant bed" at Brio^hton. If 

 there were two or more species in Pleistocene times in th(^ south of 

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

 species inhabited south and middle Europe and the north of Africa. 



As already mentioned, horses were extremely abundant in tlie 

 south of Erance in the not very remote post-Glacial period," Evi- 

 dence of the existence of large herds w^e have at Solutre, where for 

 a number of years there was an open-air Paheolithic encampment. 

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

 Saone, about midway between Chalons and Lyon), the bones 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 species 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 part 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 indispensal)le. 



That lightly built as well as stout species existed in post-Glacial 

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

 by drawings and sculptures made by Palaeolithic hunters. Of the 

 existence of two kinds of horses in post-dlacial times, practically 

 identical with the stout and slender-limbed Pleistocene species, the 

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



An aooount of the preliistoric horses of Europe, by Dr. Kohert Miinro, will 

 .be found in the Archipological .Tcmrnal, vol. lix. No. 2.'M. 



SToiissaint, of the Lyons Veterinary College, believes that at Solutn' there 

 were fragments of at least lOO.oou horses, all of which had been used as food. 



