134 



CHAPTEE XIX. 



HOOFED-MAMMALS Continued — horses. 



First Group. — Monodactyla. — Horses and Asses (Solidungula). — (Maps 41 and 42.) Some 

 authors (as Col. H. Smith) maintain that there still remains sufficient authority for the presence of 

 wild Horses in a state of nature, under one or other of their primaeval forms, eastwards from the south 

 and west of Europe, where they assume in their characteristics the same preference for opposite 

 habitations in plains or in woody mountains, which we now perceive to be the leading distinction 

 of the Zebra and the Dauw.* He himself, however, admits that some of the accounts on which he 

 depends as a warrant for the accuracy of his statement refer to the Wild Ass ; others to 

 the Koomrah ; and the whole seems too misty for any reliable conclusion to be drawn from it. 

 The general opinion no doubt is, that the Horse is of African or Arabian parentage, although, 

 as Col. H. Smith says, it is strange, if that be the case, that none are noticed in Morocco, Arabia, 

 Persia, or India. The truth is, that the origin of the Horse, like that of every other domesticated 

 animal, is involved in obscurity. We know that Horses existed in the Old and the New World 

 both previous and subsequent to the glacial epoch ; but neither physical resemblance, nor past 

 history, warrant us in pointing to one race more than another of these tertiary species as the origin 

 of the existing Horse. 



Setting aside the domestic Horse, and looking at the various other species of the genus, inclusive 

 of the extinct fossil species, we find that the only parts of the world where Horses or their re- 

 mains have not been found, are Australia and the Oceanic Islands. 



Extinct species are known belonging to three genera of Horses (Hipparion, Hippotherium, 

 and Equus). Two of these are confined to the tertiary strata ; and the third, containing species 

 which approach most to the living Horse, is found in the drift or post-glacial deposits of a recent 

 period. 



Three extinct species of Equus, E. Namadicus, E. Sivalensis, and a third not distinguish- 

 able (according to Giebel) from Hippotherium gracile, have been foimd in the miocene Scvalik 

 deposits by Falconer and Cautley. 



With regard to the genus Hippotherium, Professor Owen remarks, " that it links on Palo- 



PLOTHERITJM with EQUUS."t 



The post-glacial species have been described under many names ; as Equus fossilis, E. Ada- 

 miticus, E. priscus, E. brevirostris, E. pristinus, E. MAGNUS, E. juviixACEUs. But Dr. Giebel 

 states, that after a careful comparison of very rich materials4 he had become perfectly convinced, 



* Ham. Smith, in " Naturalists' Library." t Owen's " Palaeontology," p. 344. 



X GiBBEL, D. C. G. " Die Saugcthicrc," p. 382. Leipzig, 1859. 



