THE HORSE. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EARLY HISTORY. 



That tins animal existed before the Flood, the researches of geologists 

 aflord abundant proof. There is not a portion of Europe, nor scarcel/any 

 part of the globe, from the tropical plains of India to the frozen regions of 

 bibena— from the northern extremities of the New World to the verv 

 southern point of America, in which the fossil remains of the horse have 

 not been found mingled with the bones of the hippopotamus, the elephant 

 the rhinoceros, the bear, the tiger, the deer, and various other animals' 

 some of which, like the mastodon, have passed awaj 



There is scarcely a district in Great Britain in which the fossil remains 

 ot this animal have not been discovered. In the majority of cases the 

 bones are of nearly the same size with those of the common breed of horses 

 at the present day ; but in South America the bones of horses of a gio-antic 

 size have been dug up. ° *= 



Whether the horse had then become the servant of man, or for what 

 purpose he wasused we know not. Every record of him was swept away 

 by the general inundation, except that the ark of l^oah preserved a rem- 

 nant ot the race for the future use of man. 



An interesting and valuable account of the liistory of the horse fi-om the 

 earhest period is given by that learned and indefatigable naturalist, Col. 

 Hamilton Smith, m the 12th volume of the ' Natui^alist's Library ' This 

 work, from the extent of its investigations, the largeness of its views, and 

 it careful seiies of mductions, render it one of the most compreheAsive 

 and authoritative that has been produced. In allusion to these more 

 remote data, he says, 'We know so little of the primitive seat of civilisL! 

 tion, the original centre, perhaps in Bactria, in the higher valleys of the 

 T^^^^Tl"^ Cashmere, whence knowledge radiated to China, India, and 

 Egypt, that It may be sui-mised that the first domestication of the vosU 

 chluvian horse was achieved in Central Asia, or commenced nearly simul- 



ex?sTed ' '° ^^ '"^^'°''' ^^^^''^ ^^^ ^^ ^''''^^^' °^ *^^ ^^^^^ f°^™ 



head of'' Tbl'i'^"^'"'''' 7?^^'^' H''^^'' ^^' ^'^^'' '^l^^^ *^ «t^^^d at the 

 head of The Farmer's Library,' contains the oldest authentic history of 



past transactions, an enumeration is made of certain valuable gifts that 



were presented to Abraham by Pharaoh, the monarch of Egy^t Thev 



oonsisted of sheep oxen, asses male and female, camels, men-servants and 



maid-servants ; but the horse is not mentioned. This can scarcely bn 



