90 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



of it. What is quite certain is that in the great cave of 

 Ultima Speranza, in Patagonia from which the hairy skin, 

 dried flesh and blood, and unaltered dung as well as the 

 bones, of the giant sloth Mylodon were obtained a great 

 number of the horny hoofs, and the teeth of a peculiar 

 horse were also found some eight years ago, and are 

 preserved in the Natural History Museum, together with 

 the remains of the giant sloth. The condition of these 

 remains is such that they cannot be many centuries old. 

 The animals appear to have been contemporaneous with 

 an early race of Indians who made use of the cave before 

 the arrival of Europeans. A skull of one and a skeleton 

 of another of the peculiar extinct South American horses 

 (called Onohippidium and Hippidium), which survived 

 until a late period in Patagonia and may possibly have 

 been seen by Cabot, are shown in the Natural History 

 Museum. Their bones are found in the superficial gravel 

 and sand of the pampas. 



To revert for a moment to the history of the English 

 thoroughbred. It appears that in England in the middle 

 of the eighteenth century a happy new infusion of the Arab 

 race with that of existing stock (which already contained 

 some Arab blood mixed with that of the Northern race) 

 produced once and for all a very perfect and successful 

 breed. That breed did not derive speed from the Arab, 

 but " stamina," probably a powerful heart. It did not 

 derive its size from the Arab, but the cross proved to be 

 a large horse. It has never been improved since by any 

 further admixture of Arab or Southern blood. Hence 

 the (at first sight) misleading name " thoroughbred." This 

 name is not intended to imply that the breed is not 

 originally a " blend," but that those horses so called are 

 pure-bred from the happy and wonderful mixture which 

 a hundred and fifty years ago was embodied in the great 

 sires Matchem, Herod, and Eclipse. 



