THE BREEDS OF HORSES. 187 



the height at the withers, those of Africa are 

 much shorter, the height being considerably 

 more than equal to the length of body. And 

 this difference appears to have been so pro- 

 nounced that Prof. Low questions whether they 

 were not descended from species originally and 

 radically distinct. Spain, of all European coun- 

 tries, appears to have drawn most largely upon 

 Africa for her supply of horses, the Moorish 

 conquest, perhaps, having been the primary 

 cause of this; and here we find the horses, 

 many centuries ago, partaking largely of the 

 character' of the African Barb. 



In color these horses differed as greatly as do 

 the modern domesticated ones. In Tartary 

 many of them were dun, with dark manes and 

 tails and with a dark streak along the spine 

 and sometimes across the shoulders. Many of 

 the horses of Asia Minor, Persia, and Syria were 

 milk white, and these were much prized for use 

 on grand occasions by chiefs and rulers. Near 

 the western terminus of the Himalaya range 

 of mountains there was a race of white horses 

 spotted with brown. Many of the mountain 

 ponies of other parts of Asia were piebald. A 

 race of spotted horses abounded in Afghanistan. 

 The large horses that originally inhabited the 

 low, flat region that stretches across Europe 

 from the North Sea to the Euxine were black, 

 as were also many of the African Barbs; and 



