THE WILD HORSES OF AMERICA. 197 



literally, quarried many strange examples of animal life that 

 liave been buried millions of years, and hundreds of feet below 

 the present surface. Among these strange petrefactions that 

 were thus buried when the earth was young, there is one that has 

 been widely exploited as the "Primal Horse," that is, the animal 

 from which our present horse was finally evolved. There are 

 three or four specimens of this petref action now on exhibition in 

 this country, the first having been discovered by Professor Marsh, 

 of Yale College, and now in the museum of that institution. 

 Nearly twenty years ago Professor Huxley, the great English 

 naturalist, delivered a lecture in this city on the Marsh petrefac- 

 tion as his text, in which he told us that the "Primal Horse" 

 had, originally, five toes on each foot, that after an indeterminate 

 geological period he lost the two outside toes on the hind feet, 

 und after another million years, more or less, he lost the outside 

 toes of the fore feet, thus leaving him ready to go on developing 

 the middle toe into the foot and hoof of the horse while the out- 

 side toes disappeared. In proof of this he offered the fact that 

 horses of this day have splint bones on each side of the leg, 

 under the knee, and these bones are the remnants of the outside 

 toes. This was the explanation which the learned professor gave 

 in disposing of the outside toes when there were but three toes 

 on each foot, but he failed to explain what had become of the 

 outside toes when there were five on each foot, and there his 

 whole explanation toppled to the ground. 



In the American Museum of Natural History, in this city, there 

 is a very fine representative of this particular type of petrefac- 

 tions. It is about fifteen inches high, with a head that is dis- 

 proportionately large, and a tail that is long and slender, sug- 

 gesting that of a leopard. On each fore foot this animal has four 

 toes, or claws, as we might call them, and on each hind foot 

 three claws. With these claws this little .animal might dig in 

 the ground, or he might climb a tree when necessary for either 

 safety or food. Each one of these toes nas its own distinct 

 column of joints and bone extending to the knee, and there is no 

 material difference in the size and strength of these different 

 columns. Now, with three toes and three columns only, we can 

 accept or reject, as we please, Professor Huxley's method of get- 

 ting the two superfluous ones out of sight by pointing to the 

 splint bones on the leg of a modern horse and saying these are 

 the remnants of the outside toes. But, in the meantime, neither 



