THE LIMIT OF SIZE IN MODERN 

 ANIMALS 



THE largest pair of horses shown at the Cart-Horse 

 Parade on Whitmonday 1894, were two bays owned 

 by the Thames Bank Distillery. These gigantic 

 animals stood eighteen hands, and probably weighed 

 at least a ton each, and were capable of drawing a 

 weight of over four tons, in addition to their driver, 

 Compared with the average size of the nearest 

 approach to the wild horse existing, the tarpan of 

 the Khirgiz Steppes for the animal which Prejvalski 

 claimed to have discovered in the highlands of Gobi 

 is too like a wild ass to be accepted as the primitive 

 ancestor of the horse until more evidence is forth- 

 coming than is at present available from such remote 

 and inaccessible regions these mammoth horses show 

 an increase of about one-third in height, and three- 

 quarters in bulk and weight, as tfie result of human 

 effort directed mainly to the increase of size in just 

 proportion in a particular animal. The natural infer- 

 ence from this fact is a doubt whether the limit of 



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