Prehistoric Horses of Europe. 73 



warfare in the struggle of life. Possibly these same vic- 

 torious enemies may have, in their turn, met with a just 

 retribution, as in devouring the horses — probably their 

 only means of subsistence — they were erecting their own 

 gallows. 



Professor Owen has shown (" British Fossil Mammals") 

 that the fossil remains of the horse, found in ossiferous 

 caverns and Post-Pliocene deposits of Europe, indicate two 

 species. One {Equus caballus) was as large as a middle- 

 sized horse of the present day, and the other {Eqiius 

 plicideiis) was of the size of a large ass, but differing from 

 the former, as well as from the modern horse, in the more 

 complex foliations of the enamel on its molar teeth. The 

 "fossil horse," he writes, "had a larger head than the 

 domesticated races; resembling in this respect the wild 

 horses of Asia described by Pallas." Also, after stating 

 that several of the equine teeth from Kent's Cavern indi- 

 cated a large horse, he adds, " but the size of the fossil 

 species would be incorrectly estimated from the teeth alone." 

 Of the correctness of these statements by Professor Owen, 

 and their agreement with subsequent observations derived 

 from different sources, we shall afterwards have an oppor- 

 tunity of judging. On the other hand, Cuvier and other 

 naturalists declared their inability to detect any specific 

 difference between the fossil horses of Quaternary times and 

 Equus caballus. According to their views, all the differences 

 that had been observed could be accounted for by a difference 

 in the size of the animals compared. 



Horses of the Palaeolithic Period in Europe. 



During the Quaternary period wild horses were indigenous 

 to Europe, and formed no small portion of the food of its 

 human inhabitants, as well as of some of the larger car- 

 nivorous animals which then also inhabited the country. 

 The evidential materials on which this statement is founded 

 are so ample that it will be unnecessary to refer to more 

 than a few selected examples. 



Dr Buckland ("Keliquias Diluviame," 1824, pp. 1-47) 



