The Evolution of the Horse 



conquest of Mexico dwell upon the- astonishment 

 of the natives of that country when they first 

 became acquainted with that astounding phe- 

 nomenon — a man seated upon a horse Never- 

 theless, the investigations of American geologists 

 have proved that the remains of horses occur in 

 fche most superficial deposits of both North and 

 South America, just as they do in 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 dis- 

 covery of America. Of late years there has been 

 discovered in your Western Territories that mar- 

 vellous accumulation of deposits, admirably 

 adapted for the preservation 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 have no parallel in Europe. 

 They have yielded fossils in an excellent state of 

 conservation and in unexampled, numbers and 

 variety. The researches of Leidy and others 

 have shown that forms allied to the Hipparion 

 and the Anchitherium are to be found among these 

 remains. But it is only recently that the ad- 

 mirably conceived and most thoroughly and 

 patiently worked-out investigations of Professor 

 Marsh have given us a just idea of the vast fossil 

 wealth, and of the scientific importance, of these 

 deposits. I have had the advantage of glancing 

 over the collections in Vale Museum: and 1 can 

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