298 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



skinny parachute expanded upon a wonderfully pro- 

 longed digit. The need of an organ tends to its 

 development, and the uselessness of an organ leads to 

 atrophy and extinction. This would not have been 

 well known were it not for archaeological researches. 



By fossil tooth and petrous track, 

 Is traced the creature story back. 



It is interesting to know that animals kindred to 

 those now living, yet larger and now extinct, preceded 

 present races. In plain terms, the earth gave birth to 

 gigantic creatures of certain types ; then after an ex- 

 tended range of existence they we're cut off to give 

 place to smaller animals of the same kind. . . . 



I have stated that gigantic animals of certain 

 orders came first, and small ones afterward. But 

 such is not the case with the equine family. The 

 earliest possible horse was not larger than a sheep, 

 and several larger and still larger introductions came 

 along in the chain of evolution or development before 

 the large and handsome animal of to-day stepped 

 forth. In Myocene times, as companions of elephants 

 and several varieties of the proboscidian family, the 

 horse ranged over considerable portions of J^orth and 

 South America ; but when this continent was discov- 

 ered by Columbus not a horse was anywhere to be 

 seen. Then, when re-introduced from Europe, the 

 animal found a region suited to its purposes, and it 

 has multiplied till, on the pampas of the LaPlata, vast 

 herds run wild, while there are too few of the human 

 race to break them to the bit. Some great catas- 

 trophe must have overtaken the early horses and ele- 

 phants of this continent. Was it an overspreading of 

 glacial ice from the north? Did the glacial avalanche 



