80 THE HORSE. 



animals must have been one of their chief occupa- 

 tions, and they must have furnished one of their 

 most important food-supplies. The characters of 

 the bones preserved, and certain rude but graphic 

 representations carved on bones or reindeer's antlers 

 found in several caves in the south of France, enable 

 us to know that they were rather small in size and 

 heavy in build, with large heads and rough, shaggy 

 manes and tails — much like, in fact, the present 

 wild horses of the steppes of the south of Russia. 

 These horses were domesticated by the inhabitants 

 of Europe before the dawn of history. Caesar 

 found the Ancient Britons and the Germans using 

 war-chariots drawn by horses. It is, however, doubt- 

 ful whether the majority of the horses existing 

 now are derived directly from the indigenous wild 

 horses of Western Europe, it being more probable 

 that they are the descendants of horses imported 

 through Greece and Italy from Asia, derived from 

 a still earlier domestication, followed by gradual 

 improvement through long-continued attention be- 

 stowed upon their breeding and training. Such an 

 importation of horses from the East, for the purpose 

 of improving the races of Europe, has taken place at 

 various intervals throughout the whole of the historic 

 period. The most ancient monumental records of 

 Egypt give no sign of the existence of the horse in 



