ODD-TOED UNGULATES (pEKISSODACTYLA) 283 



between the fossil one-toed horses of Europe and 

 Asia and the four-toed Hyracotherium. 



'J'he American series is briefly represented by — 



L. Eocene . . . Phenacodus . 5-toed 

 Wind River, Wyoming- . Protorohippus . 4-toed 

 Oligocene . . . Mesoliippvis . 3-toed, with a sug- 

 gestion of a 

 fonrth toe on 

 the fore-foot. 

 Early Pliocene Protohippiis . 3-toed 



Pleistocene . . . Pliohippns . 1-toed 



Fossil one-toed horses have also been found in 

 vSouth America, which, though small of stature, have 

 a curious conformation of the skull indicating that 

 they possessed extraordinarily long noses. The 

 hoofs of these animals have been found in Argentina 

 in a comparatively fresh condition, and it is considered 

 possible that they may liave been living in 1530 and, 

 if so, were probably the wild horses alleged to have 

 been seen by Cabot. 



Finally we may say with Prof. Ridgeway that '' all 

 the races which have in their turn held the mastery 

 in Asia, Africa, and Europe, have owed the extension 

 of their power, or preservation of their liberty, to the 

 possession of horses, whether they were Egyptians, 

 Syrians, Libyans, Medes, Persians, Scythians, 

 Macedonians, Carthaginians, or Numidians ; that the 

 lack of horses till after the conquest of Gaul was the 

 great weakness of Rome ; that the acquisition of the 

 horse by the Arabs was a main factor in the spreading 

 of Islam; and that had not the Franks owned good 

 horses by 732 a.d. Western Europe might have 

 been enslaved by the Saracens ; that the possession 



