54 HORSES. Chap. II. 



The savages of North and South America ea.sily reclaim the 

 fei-al horses, so that there is no improbability in savages in 

 various quarters of the Avorld having domesticated more than 

 one native species or natural race. M. Sanson ^'^ thinks that 

 he has proved that two distinct species have been domesti- 

 cated, one in the East, and one in North Africa ; and that 

 these differed in the number of their lumbar vertebra and in 

 varii >us other parts ; but M. Sanson seems to believe that osteo- 

 logical characters are subject to very little variation, which 

 is certainly a mistake. At present no aboriginal or truly 

 wild horse is positively known to exist; for it is commonly 

 believed that the wild horses of the East are escaped 

 domestic animals.^^ If therefore our domestic breeds are 

 descended from several species or natural races, all have 

 become extinct in the wild state. 



With respect to the causes of the modifications which 

 horses have undergone, the conditions of life seem to produce 

 a considerable direct effect. Mr. D. Forbes, who has had 

 excellent opportunities of comparing the horses of Spain 

 with those of South America, informs me that the horses of 

 Chile, which have lived under nearly the same conditions as 

 their progenitors in Andalusia, remain unaltered, whilst the 

 Pampas horses and the Puno ponies are considerably modified. 

 There can be no doubt that horses become greatly reduced 

 in size and altered in appearance by living on mountains 

 and islands ; and this apparently is due to want of nutritious 

 or varied food. Every one knows how small and rugged the 

 ponies are on the Northern islands and on the mountains of 

 Europe. Corsica and Sardinia have their native ponies ; and 

 there were,^^ or still are, on some islands on the coast of 

 Virginia, ponies like those of the Shetland Islands, which 

 are believed to have originated thi'ough exposure to un- 

 favourable conditions. The Puno ponies, which inhabit the 



" ' Coruptes rendus,' 1866, p. 485, remarked on the improbability of man 



and ' Journal de I'Anat. et de la Phys.,' in ancient times having extirpated • 



Mai 1868. species in a region where it can no v 



'* Mr. W. C. L. Martin ( ' The exist in numbers. 

 Horse,' 1845, p. 34), in arguing " 'Transact. Maryland Academy,' 



against the belief that the wild vol. i. part i. p. 28. 

 Eastern horses are merely feral, has 



