WILD HORSES. 259 



very likely have one of the races which subsequently became domes- 

 ticated, and which left descendants that probably still exist, Buch 

 as the long-headed Ardennes horse and the Carmague small 

 semi-wild horses of the Rhone delta. Also in Alsace there is a race 

 of large ponies which Schmidt; thinks probably the last offshoots of 

 a race of ti is kind ; they have large and ugly heads, well formed 

 bodies (although no care whatever is exercised over their breeding)* 

 and their limbs are powerful. They are good-natured, docile, and 

 very strong in moving weights. The sum of these observations and 

 arguments is hardly conclusive as establishing that hcrsrs were 

 domesticated locally ; yet it seems to be clearly established, however, 

 that there were at least two well-marked varieties of the cave horse, 

 the large-limbed, narrow-headed form and the small-limbed well- 

 shaped, broad-skulled animal. These variations we must to a very 

 large exent put down to local conditions; the experience of breeding 

 domesticated animals, even during the short period of half a century, 

 shows that the large size of the variety and narrowness of the skull 

 depend on the amount of food obtainable within a limited range 

 of grazing, whereas compactness of bone, smallness of face, and 

 greater relative development of the cranium result from opposite con- 

 ditions, as may be illustrated by comparison of the skull of a Lincoln 

 sheep with that of a Southdown. The result of scientific research 

 so far has, we may conclude, supported what we may term the 

 commonsense conclusions with regard to horse domestication. Of 

 the methods of capturing the horse or wild ass in the present day* 

 almost all would not be practicable to our earliest horse-taming 

 forefathers, for they naturally conld neither adopt the corral nor 

 lassoing system; also they had nothing on which to ride down horses. 

 Either they captured the very young, or else they cured animals 

 captured alive after being maimed with axes, arrows, or 

 other primitve weapon. . Certainly they got many horses for food 

 in those days, and probably, as the Bikanir hunters are described 

 as doing now, they caught the foals and tamed them. Doubtless, 



• Mehods of capture of wild horses: — . 



1. Corraled ; thrown by means of lasso round fore legs, saddled, bestridden, and 



then let go and spurred until controllable. 



2. Loose wild horse lassoed and jerked off legs, then ridden. 



3. Ridden down by relays of horses. 



4. Bewildered by faloon flapping wings in the eyes. 



8. Brought down and stunned by a rifle shot behind the ear. 

 6. Capture and rearing of foals or of wounded horses. 



