230 REPORT—1843. 
Genus Equus. 
In England, as on the Continent, remains of the genus Eguus attest that a 
species equalling a middle-sized Horse, and one of the size of an Ass, or 
Zebra, have been the associates of the Mammoth, Rhinoceros, and other ex- 
tinct quadrupeds whose remains are so generally dispersed in the drift forma- 
tions, bone-caves, and the newer tertiary deposits. Almost every geological 
author who has had occasion to notice the mammalian fossils of these recent 
periods has made mention of such a combination. It has been observed by 
Dr. Mantell* in the ‘Elephant-bed” at Brighton; by Mr. Clift+ in the caver- 
nous fissures at Oreston; by Dr. Bucklandt in the ossiferous caves at Kirk- 
dale, in the Mendips and at Paviland; by Mr. Lyell§ in the tertiary de- 
posits on the Norfolk coast; by Col. Hamilton Smith|| in the bone-caves 
near Torquay; and by Mr. Morris] in the mammaliferous deposits in the 
valley of the Thames, as at Wickham, Ilford, Erith, Grays and Kingsland. 
No critical anatomical comparison appears hitherto to have been instituted 
with regard to the relations of these equine fossils with the existing species. 
That the fossils vary in size amongst themselves has been more than once 
noticed ; and Dr. Buckland makes a remark** expressive of his suspicion that 
they belonged to more than one species. 
The largest-sized fossil Hquus from British strata is indicated by a molar 
tooth, the second of the left side, lower jaw, obtained by Mr. Lyell from a 
bed of laminated blue clay, with pyrites, eight feet thick, overlying the Nor- 
wich crag at Cromer, where it was associated with remains of the Mammoth, 
Rhinoceros, Bos, Cervus, and Trogontherium. The antero-posterior dia- 
meter of this tooth was 1 inch 4-10ths, equalling that in the largest dray- 
horses of the present day: other corresponding fossil teeth of Hguus have 
measured in the same diameter | inch 2-10ths, and 1 inch. The intermediate 
size, which equals that of the teeth of a horse of between fourteen and fifteen 
hands high, is the most common one presented by fossils. A middle upper 
molar tooth from Kent’s Hole, Torquay, indicates a horse as large as that 
from the blue clay at Cromer, but the size of the fossil species would be 
incorrectly estimated from the analogy of the teeth alone. Although the 
equine fossils are far from rare, yet they have hitherto in England been 
always found more or less dispersed or insulated, and no opportunity has 
occurred of ascertaining the proportions of one and the same individual by the 
comparison of an entire skeleton with that of the existing species of Bguus. 
The hest-authenticated associations of bones of the extremities with jaw 
and teeth, clearly indicate that the fossil Horse had a coarser and larger head 
than in the domesticated races ; resembling in this respect the Wild Horses 
of Asia described by Pallastt,and in the same degree approximating the 
Zebrine and Asinine groups. 
It is well known that Cuvier failed to detect any characters in the skele- 
tons of the different existing species of Equus, or in the fossil remains of the 
same genus, by which he could distinguish them ; except by their difference 
of size, which yields but a vague and unsatisfactory approximation. 
The second and third molars of both jaws in every fossil specimen of these 
teeth which I have examined, are narrower transversely in comparison with 
their antero-posterior diameter than in the existing horse; and a similar cha- 
racter appears to have been recognized by M. H. v. Meyer in the fossil 
equine teeth from continental localities, since he cites the Equus angustidens 
* Fossils of the South Downs, 4to. 1822, p. 283. T Phil. Trans. 1823, p. 86. 
t Reliquiz Diluviane, pp. 18, 75. § Phil. Mag. vol xvi. (1840), pp. 349, 362. 
|| Naturalist’s Library, Horses, p. 63. 4 Mag. of Nat. History, 1838, p. 539. 
** Loc. cit. p. 75, with respect to the equine remains discovered in the Oreston caverns :— 
“ Horses about twelve, of different ages and sizes, as if from more than one species.” _ 
Tf Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, tom. i. p, 255. 
