THE HORSE HISTORY. 451 



so little of the primitive seat of civilization, the original center, 

 perhaps in Bactria, in the higher valleys of the Oxus, or in 

 Cashmere, whence knowledge radiated to China, India, and 

 Egypt, that it may be surmised that the first domestication of 

 the post-diluvian horse was achieved in Central Asia, or com- 

 menced nearly simultaneously in several regions where the wild 

 animals of the horse form existed. The fossil beds of New 

 Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming belong to the eocene period, arid 

 furnish us fossils of the earliest forms to which the modern 

 horse can be traced. This would indicate that the horse inhab- 

 ited America before Asia or Africa, as similar evidence can not 

 now be shown in favor of their being the ancient habitat of the 

 horse. Yet this is not proof to the contrary, since paleontolo- 

 gists have not explored the immense tracts of older Asia and 

 Africa as they have this newer continent." 



On this subject the American Cyclopedia says : " The E. neo- 

 geus (Lund), and E. Major (De Kay), two species of the closely 

 allied genus Hipparion, and one of the Hippotherium, indicate that 

 the equine family were well represented in America in former 

 geological periods. Whether this ancient horse, of about the 

 same size as the recent one, and distinguished by the usually 

 more complex folds of the enamel of the molars, became entirely 

 extinct before the creation of man, may admit of question." 

 Professor Leidy says, " There is no room to doubt the former 

 existence of the horse on the American continent at the same 

 time with the mastodon, and that 'man, probably, was his com- 

 panion.' " The fossil horse has also been found in the Old World 

 in the pliocene of Europe with the mastodon and tapir, and 

 through all the diluvial period, and in the upper tertiary of 

 Asia; there are two or three species described in Europe and 

 as many in Asia. From this it appears that the horse inhab- 

 ited the Old World, as well as the New, before the advent of 

 man, while others persisted in a declining condition during the 

 early part of the human epoch. 



Written History. EGYPT THE PRODUCER OF HORSES. The 

 earliest writings pertaining to the horse are of Sanskrit ori- 

 gin. The hieroglyphics of Egypt show that Egyptians used 



