X INTEODUCTION. 



that domestic horses have had a multiple origin, i.e., that several 

 distinct kinds or species of wild horses were domesticated in pre- 

 historic times and their off-spring afterwards blended to form the 

 present numerous more or less distinct breeds. Further, there 

 are now good grounds for believing that one of the wild species 

 domesticated in prehistoric times was identical with, or closely 

 related to, the wild horse {E. Prjevalskii), still surviving in the 

 Dzungaria and Kobdo disitricts of the Great Gobi Desert of 

 Mongolia. 



If Prjevalsky's horse has played an important paii; in forming 

 some of our more important domestic breeds, has contributed 

 characters to the English Shire horse, and had something to do 

 with the making of Barbs and Turks and other forms which 

 helped materially to produce the English racehorse, it may be 

 presumed that not a few of the many thousands in England in- 

 terested in the history and origin of domestic horses will welcome 

 a translation of a work which deals with the most interesting 

 living member of the horse family. 



But as Salensky's work must be read in the light of recent 

 discoveries and speculations, it may be as well in this introduction 

 to state shortly the conclusions recently arrived at as to the 

 origin of the horses now living under domestication. 



There are now several distinct species of zebras living in Africa ; 

 in like manner in prehistoric times there were 'several distinct 

 species of horse? living in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. In 

 Europe horses, like deer and other ungulates, were originally 

 hunted for food, but by and by the men of the Stone Age set 

 about their domestication. How many kinds or species of horses 

 were domesticated in the Northern Hemisphere will probably 

 never be known. Darwin, with some misgivings, arrived at the 

 conclusion that domestic breeds had all come from a single wild 

 species " of a dun-colour and more or less striped." Hamilton 

 Smith thought domestic horses had been derived from five species 

 or stirpes of the following colours, viz. : — dun, bay, grey, black 

 and piebald. Prof. Pietrement, the distinguished French authority, 

 tells us horses were domesticated in eight separate areas — two in 

 Asia and six in Europe — the eight races in these more or less iso- 

 lated areas forming, however, only one species. Prof. Ridgeway, in 

 his work, the " Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse," * 

 says all the improved breeds of the world were formed by the 

 blending of a fine bay horse {E. c. libycus), evolved in North 

 Africa, with a coarse variety (allied to Prjevalsky's horse) of a 



* Cambridge University Press, IQO.'). 



