8 EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE 



locality is on the Niobrara river in Nebraska, another in central 

 Oregon. ]\Iany separate teeth and bones have been found in the 

 phosphate mines near Charlestown, S. C. ; other specimens have 

 come from central Florida, from southern Texas, Arizona, Kan- 

 sas, Louisiana and even from Alaska. They are, in fact, so 

 often found in deposits of rivers and lakes of the latest geological 

 epoch (the Pleistocene) that the formation in the western United 

 States has received the name of Equus Beds. 



In South America, in strata of the Pleistocene Epoch, there 

 occurs, besides several extinct species of the genus Equus, the 

 Hippidium, a peculiar kind of Horse characterized by verv short 

 legs and feet, and some peculiarities about the muzzle and the 

 grinding teeth. The legs were hardly as long as those of a cow, 

 while the head was as large as that of a racehorse or other small 

 breed of the Domestic Horse. 



All these horses became extinct, both in North and South 

 America. Why, we do not know. It may have been that they 

 were unable to stand the cold of the winters, probably longer 

 continued and much more severe during the Ice Age than now. 

 It is very probable that man — the early tribes of prehistoric 

 hunters — played a large part in extinguishing the race. The 

 competition with the bison and the antelope, which had recently 

 migrated to America — may have made it more difficult than 

 formerly for the American Horse to get a living. Or, finally, 

 some unknown disease or prolonged season of drought may have 

 exterminated the race. Whatever the cause, the Horse had dis- 

 appeared from the New World when the white man invaded it 

 (unless a few individuals still lingered on the remote plains of 

 South America), and in his place the bison had come and spread 

 over the prairies of the North. 



In Central Asia, two wild races persist to the present day; 

 others were domesticated by man in the earliest times, and their 

 use in Chaldsea and Egypt for draught and riding is depicted in 

 the ancient mural paintings. In Africa the larger species became 

 extinct in prehistoric times, as in America, but the smaller zebras 

 still survive in the southern part of the continent (one species, 

 the Quagga, abundant fifty years ago, is now probably extinct), 

 and the African Wild Ass is found in the fauna of the northern 



