THE HOESE 



CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



OAVING to the careful researches that have continuously 

 taken place during the last fifty years, our know- 

 ledo^e of the early history of the horse has been 

 enormously increased. We now possess a comprehen- 

 sive view of its evolution from prehistoric ancestors, the 

 earliest date of which goes back to a period whose remote- 

 ness was little suspected a few years ago. Our knowledge 

 has been gained through the finding of bones and teeth 

 in the various deposits termed the Tertiaries ; for the 

 skeletons of mammals, like those of birds, reptiles, and 

 osseous fishes, being composed of calcareous earth 

 pervading an organic base, have withstood the passage 

 of incalculable Ages, provided they were kept out of the 

 reach of the solvent action of water, in almost a 

 similar manner to the soil itself. Our knowledge thus 

 gained has been further immensely increased by the dis- 

 covery of marvellous drawings left by the Cave-dwellers 

 (usually known as the Reindeer Men), which were carved 

 in a most artistic, as well as realistic, manner on the 

 tusks of the mammoth, and on various other bones, and 

 depict both the pursuits of the human beings of that 

 epoch, and the animals with whom they were acquainted. 

 Though we do not know when the Tertiaries commenced 

 to form, they have taken millions of years to do so ; and 

 as they consist of well-defined series of clay and sand, 

 superimposed above each other, the finding of the 



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