Prehistoric Horses of Europe. 77 



horse bones that we are at present concerned. The bones 

 were so broken for extracting the marrow, that it was with 

 difficulty a complete skeleton could be constructed for the 

 museum at Lyon. 



According to M. Toussaint, the horse of Solutre was of 

 low stature, the average height being from 1*36 metres to 

 1'38 metres. The lower jaws were highly developed, and 

 the teeth were so large that they might readily pass as 

 belonging to animals of much greater size. This relatively 

 large size of the head, in proportion to the rest of the body, is 

 in striking agreement, as we shall afterwards see, with the 

 engraved figures of horses found in some of the Dordogne 

 caves. The bones of the limbs were strong, with large arti- 

 culations, prominent muscular attachments, and broad hoofs. 

 One noteworthy peculiarity of the leg bones, specially re- 

 ferred to by M. G. de Mortillet (*'Le Prehistorique," p. 383), is 

 that the metacarpal and metatarsal vestigial bones were not 

 united to the main bone, as is the case with modern horses — 

 thus establishing an intermediate link "between the latter 

 and the Jiipparion. 



In the reports (" Eeliquiie Aquitanic^ ") of the investiga- 

 tions conducted by MM. Lartet and Christy in the caves of 

 the Yez^re (Dordogne), the fauna are not so fully described 

 as to show the relative number of the different species. On 

 p. 172, M. E. Lartet enumerates the animals whose bones 

 were found in greatest abundance in the caves of La Made- 

 laine, Laugerie, and Les Eyzies ; from which it will be seen 

 that Uqmis caballus heads the list, followed by Sus scrofa, 

 Cervus tarandus, G. elaphns, G. capreolus, Megaceros, hibernicus, 

 etc., but of course this may not be the order of their relative 

 abundance. On p. 181 M. Lartet gives lists of the Mam- 

 malia identified from among the osseous remains found in 

 seven caves of the Vezere, and all of them, except one, con- 

 tained remains of the horse. The same author states (p. 94), 

 with regard to the fauna represented in the rock-shelter of 

 Cro-Magnon: — "As for the horse, its remains are the most 

 numerous here at Cro-Magnon, where it must have consti- 

 tuted the chief article of food for the people of the period." 

 We may therefore safely conclude that during the reindeer 



