? EQUUS ZEYLANICUS. 263 
bones of a sheep buried under gravel and silt by a modern flood, 
and the obscure crystalline traces of a coral in ancient marshes 
of limestone are equally fossils.* 
It should be noted that by no means are all fossils petrified. 
Indeed, at a guess, I should say that at least 50 per cent. 
are not. 
The object of this paper is to show reason for the opinion, 
already stated, that the teeth discovered during excavation 
carried out by the Colombo Drainage Works are not those of a 
modern horse, but that they are to be regarded as evidence of 
the former existence of Hqguus in Ceylon during a remote— 
and, as I shall hope to show, a prehistoric—period. 
I have to thank Dr. Pearson for the loan of the teeth and for 
information concerning them ; Mr. Paul Pieris for historical 
facts ; Mr. A. de Courcy Carson for some geographical informa- 
tion; Mr. G. F. Walton for a detailed drawing of the trench ; 
and Mr. G. W. Sturgess, Government Veterinary Surgeon, for 
the loan of a horse’s skull. 
IJ.—Hitstoricat ASPECT. 
The question naturally arises, Is there any historic or 
traditional evidence to prove that horses existed in this 
Island before the first European occupation ? 
In late medieval times the horse could not be counted as 
a member of the Ceylon fauna, for Knox, speaking of the 
Sinhalese in the seventeenth century, says: “ Lions, Wolves, 
Horses, Asses, Sheep, they have none.”+ But some Euro- 
peans in the country possessed steeds it would seem,{ for the 
same author says of the French Embassador : “ He rode up 
from Cotiar on Horseback.” § 
That the Sinhalese have been acquainted from the earliest 
times with the horse there can be no doubt, since they have their 
own name for it, as have the Tamils ; nor, since the antiquity 
of the horse in India is unquestionable, is this to be wondered 

* Text book of Geology, London, 1903, Book V., Vol. Il., pp. 824, 
825. 
+ Robert Knox: ‘‘ An Historical Relation of Ceylon,’ London, 
1681, p. 20. 
t In the time of Knox the Portuguese were already breeding horses 
on the island of Delft. 
§ Op. cit., p. 184. 
