24 EVOLUTION 



discoverer, Professor E..D. Cope, a "five-toed 

 horse," but this is not to be taken too hterally. 

 "The first undoubted horse-like animal 

 appearing in the rocks of North America is a 

 little creature not more than eleven inches 

 high, known to science as Eohippus. This 

 interesting animal had already made a long 

 stride in the direction of the modern horse, as 

 the number of toes is now reduced to four in 

 front and three behind, and the bones of the 

 wrist and ankle have shifted so as to inter- 

 lock, which greatly strengthens the foot." 

 It seems that Eohippus was also represented 

 in Britain, and it is possible that migrants 

 by way of Asia and what is now the Behring 

 Strait started the American stock. Appar- 

 ently more primitive than Eohippus is the 

 "coney-like creature" Hyracotherium, but 

 only the skull is known. "Commencing 

 with the Hyracotherium," Dr. Matthew 

 writes, "twelve stages have been recognized 

 from as many successive formations, showing 

 the gradual evolution of the race into its 

 modern form; and each stage is characteris- 

 tic of its particular geological horizon. Be- 

 sides the main line of descent which led into 

 the modern horses and zebras, there were 

 several collateral branches which have left 

 no descendants." 



Also in the Eocene there was Protorohip- 



iL C. Smu CoUtM 



