European Ancestors of the Horse 75 



ground iu ordinary locomotion. The ulna is complete and 

 quite distinct from the radius, although firmly united with the 

 latter. The fibula seems also to have been complete ; its lower 

 end, though intimately united with that of the tibia, is clearly 

 united with that of the latter bone. There are forty-four teeth ; 

 the incisors have no strong pit. The canines seem to have 

 been well developed iu both sexes. The first of the seven 

 grinders, which, as I have said, is frequently absent, and, when 

 it does exist, is small in the horse, is a good-sized and per- 

 manent tooth, while the grinder which follows it is but little 

 larger than the hinder ones. The crowns of the grinders are 

 short, and, although the fundamental pattern of the horse-tooth 

 is discernible, the front and back ridges are less curved, the 

 accessory pillars are wanting, and the valleys, umch shallower, 

 are not filled up with cement." 



Then, after describing his early efforts to trace the 

 descent of the horse from European fossils, Huxley 

 goes on to relate the new light thrown on the matter 

 from the American discoveries of Professor Marsh : 



" You are all aware that, when your country was first discov- 

 ered by Europeans, there were no traces of the existence of 

 the horse in any part of the American continent. The accounts 

 of the conquest of Mexico dwell on the astonishment of the 

 natives of that country when they first became acquainted with 

 that astounding phenomenon, a man seated upon a horse. 

 Nevertheless, the investigations of American geologists have 

 proved that the remains of horses occur iu the most superficial 

 deposits of both North and South America, just as they do iu 

 Europe, Therefore, for some reason or other, — no feasible 

 suggestion on that subject, so far as I know, has been made, — 

 the horse must have died out on this continent at some period 

 preceding the discovery of America. Of late years there has 

 been discovered in your Western territories that marvellous 

 accumulation of deposits, admirably adapted for the preserva- 

 tion of organic remains, to which I referred the other evening, 

 and which furnishes us with a consecutive series of records of 

 the fauna of the older half of the Tertiary epoch, for which we 



