THE WILD HORSE. 151 



against the central chain, the original wild Equus 

 cahallus is still found ; and that in the other regions 

 of the empire stretching westward, they are likewise 

 of the wild stock, but more and more adulterated 

 with domestic races as they approach towards Eu- 

 rope, or have been long peopled by fixed residents. 

 Even in the south-western steppes to the Ukraine, 

 there have been wild horses, as is attested by the 

 earliest historians, poets, and geographers: across 

 these plains, ancient Teutonic or Indo-Germanic 

 nations ; subsequently Ouralian tribes, Sarmatians, 

 Huns, Bulgarians, Magyars, andTahtars, all mounted 

 hordes, have passed, and some repassed ; and if the 

 horses on the banks of the Don are of feral or of 

 mixed blood, their origin and contamination is 

 surely much older than the siege of Azof. Even 

 at that period, there were still wild horses kept in 

 the parks of Eastern Europe, like other game, for 

 the service of the tables of the great. To admit, 

 therefore, the conclusion, that all the wild horses of 

 the old continent are descended from animals at 

 some period under the dominion of man, appears a 

 gratuitous assumption resting upon no proof, and in 

 opposition to historical records from the time of 

 Herodotus to our own age : it would imply the 

 absorption into domesticity of the whole species, or 

 of several species, in regions where such unbounded 

 wildernesses exist, in several parts still maintaining 

 the parent stock of other domestic animals ; or in- 

 volve the total destruction of the original wild 

 horses upon this immeasurable surface, where man 



