160 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
instance at least the founders of the family — 
have every reason to regard their descendants — 
with undisguised pride. For the horse family 
started in life in a small way, and the first of | 
the line, the Hyracotherium, was “a little an- 
imal no bigger than a fox, and on five* toes 
he scampered over Tertiary rocks,” in the age 
called Eocene, because it was the morning of 
EO ae = 
life for the great group of mammals whose cul- — 
minating point was man. At that time, west- 
ern North America was a country of many 
lakes, for the most part comparatively shallow, 
around the reedy margins of which moved a 
host of animals, quite unlike those of to-day, — 
and yet foreshadowing them, the forerunners — 
of the rhinoceros, tapir, and the horse. 
a le Ce 
The early horse——we may call him so by y 
courtesy, although he was then very far from i 
being a true horse — was an insignificant little — 
creature, apparently far less likely to succeed — 
in life’s race than his bulky competitors, and — 
yet, by making the most of their opportunities, | 
* Four, to be exact ; but we prefer to sacrifice the foot of — 
the Hyracothere rather than to take liberties nith one of the ~ 
feet of Mrs. Stetson’s poem. 
