Ill] 



AND HISTORIC TIMES 



85 



horses, a fact which supplies an intermediate link between the 

 latter and the Hipparion. 



The investigations of MM. Lartet and Christy in the caves 

 of the Vezere (Dordogne) have revealed bones of the Equus 

 caballus in great abundance, for in the list of animals whose 

 bones were found in greatest numbers in the caves of La 

 Madelaine, Laugerie, and Les Eyzies, Equus caballus heads 

 the list, followed by Sus scrofa, Cervus tarandus, C. elaphus, C. 

 capreolus, the Irish elk, and various others 1 . Of seven bone- 

 yielding caves of Vezere all save one supplied remains of the 



Fm. 42. Head of Prehistoric Horse: Gourdan. 



horse 2 . At the famous rock- shelter of Cro-Magnon the bones 

 of the horse were more numerous than those of any other 

 animal, and M. Lartet 3 rightly inferred that it must have 

 formed the chief food of its primitive inhabitants. It is 

 clear then that during the Reindeer period the horse was 

 found in considerable numbers in south-western France. 



1 Lartet and Christy, Reliquiae Aquitanicae, p. 172; cf. Mimro, op. cit., 

 p. 116. 



2 Lartet and Christy, op. cit., p. 181. 



3 Lartet, op. cit., p. 94. 



