FOSSIL HORSE. 385 
most common one presented by fossils. Several of the 
equine molar teeth from Kent’s Hole, Torquay, indicate 
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 size 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 ascer- 
taining the proportions of one and the same individual 
by the comparison of an entire skeleton with that of the 
existing species of Hguus. 
The best-authenticated associations of bones of the 
extremities with jaws and teeth, clearly indicate that 
the fossil Horse had a larger head than the domesticated 
races ; resembling in this respect the Wild Horses of Asia 
described by Pallas,* and im the same degree approxi- 
mating the Zebrine and Asinine groups. 
It is well known that Cuvier} failed to detect any cha- 
racters in the bones or teeth of the different existing species 
of Hquus, or in the fossil remains of the same genus, by 
which he could distinguish them, except by their differ- 
ence of size, which yields but a vague and unsatisfactory 
approximation. MM. H. v. Meyer and Dr. Kaup have, 
however, pointed out well-marked distinctive characters 
in the fossil Kguide of the older pliocene and miocene 
tertiary deposits of the Continent. 
The second and third molars of both jaws in most 
of the equine fossil specimens of the teeth from our more 
recent deposits and caverns which I have examined, are 
narrower transversely 1 comparison with their antero- 
posterior diameter than in the existing Horse; and a 
* ¢ Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica,’ tom. i. p. 255. 
+ * Ossemens Fossiles,’ 4to. tom. ii. pt. i. p. 111. 
2c 
