94 Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society. 



indigenous horses, with the result that they also were 

 receding more and more to the open and more congenial 

 steppes of Asia, where a few of their descendants are said 

 to survive to the present day. There are, however, potent 

 reasons for supposing that, within the British Isles, and 

 probably in some other parts of Europe, they actually became 

 extinct for a short time during early Neolithic times, and 

 that their reappearance in these countries was as domestic 

 animals. While the remnant of the old hunters of the days 

 of big game who still lived in France were struggling to 

 adapt themselves to the new conditions of life, and to make 

 a living on such of the smaller wild animals — probably 

 greatly increased in numbers after the disappearance of the 

 oreat carnivores — as found a consjenial habitat in the mild 

 climate and rich vegetation which then obtained, they came 

 in contact with the Neolithic civilisation which slowly 

 reached them, partly from Asia and partly from Mediter- 

 ranean sources. The question which now arises is — Was 

 the horse among the domestic animals of the indigenous 

 people who had thus become pastoral and agricultural 

 farmers ? Or was it a later addition to the number of 

 subjugated animals, and imported through the Asiatic immi- 

 grants ? The opinions held on this problem are somewhat 

 contradictory; but the arguments pro et con are too dis- 

 cursive to be now fully dealt with. I shall therefore content 

 myself by stating categorically the opinions of one or two of 

 the leading authorities on the subject. 



Eutimeyer (" Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten in der Schweiz," 

 1861, p. 122) expresses the opinion that the inhabitants of 

 the earliest lake-dwellings were not in possession of the 

 domestic horse. He contrasts the few horse bones found 

 on some of the older sites, such as Wangen (a tooth), 

 Moosseedorf (a metatarsal bone), Eobenhausen (a tarsal 

 bone), and Wauwyl (a few bones), with their abundance on 

 the Bronze Age stations. 



M. Dupont, in discussing the fauna of the Neolithic 

 period in Belgium, says: "A number of species of the pre- 

 ceding age have emigrated. The reindeer and the glutton 

 have taken refuge in the polar regions; the wild goat, 



