Prehistoric Horses of Europe. 89 



among the varied assortment of objects in the Palgeolithic 

 art gallery, or among the scenes of animal life, so fortuit- 

 ously brought to light in the caves of Combarelles, La 

 Mouthe, and others. The supposed horse-cover represented 

 by Fig. 4 may be nothing more than the hunter's skin coat 

 thrown over the back of the animal, when led home by 

 means of a halter made of thongs or withes to be there 

 slaughtered. But seeing we have as yet only a preliminary 

 instalment of these most interesting art productions, it is 

 better to postpone further criticism until all the materials 

 are issued. 



The history of the Quaternary horses of the Old World 

 is differentiated from that of their contemporary congeners 

 in the New World by the fact that the former lived in a 

 country where human intelligence was becoming a dominant 

 factor in the organic world. The outcome of man's experi- 

 ence of the many excellent qualities of horses, whether 

 gained during his early hunting scenes, or subsequently, 

 was to enlist the services of these useful animals in the 

 cause of human civilisation by bringing them into a per- 

 manent state of domestication. The far-reaching con- 

 sequences of this friendly alliance are now so manifest, 

 that the very idea of eliminating the co-operation of horses 

 from human affairs would be like sapping the foundations 

 of a building. As a quid j^ro quo for wild liberty, the horse 

 has received a guarantee of the indefinite prolongation of its 

 existence as a species. In consequence of this new lease 

 of life, the geographical range of the numerous breeds of 

 domestic horses is now almost co-extensive with that of man 

 himself. On the other hand, there is every reason to believe 

 that, without the fostering care and protection of man, the 

 Old World horses would, ere now, have met with a fate 

 similar to that which overtook those of the New World. 

 As to the time when horses became permanently domestic- 

 ated, there are different opinions held. Some archaeologists, 

 as I have just explained, assign it to the Quaternary hunters 

 of Europe. Others maintain that the horses of the Palaeo- 

 lithic period gradually died out in Europe, and that the 

 country was restocked in the Neolithic period by immigrants 



