FOSSIL HORSE. 385 



most common one presented by fossils. Several of the 

 equine molar teeth from Kent's Hole, Torquay, indicate 

 a horse as large as that from the blue clay at Cromer ; 

 but the size of the fossil species would be incorrectly 

 estimated from the size of the teeth alone. Although 

 the equine fossils are far from rare, yet they have hitherto 

 in England been always found more or less dispersed 

 or insulated, and no opportunity has occurred of ascer- 

 taining the proportions of one and the same individual 

 by the comparison of an entire skeleton with that of the 

 existing species of Equus. 



The best-authenticated associations of bones of the 

 extremities with jaws and teeth, clearly indicate that 

 the fossil Horse had a larger head than the domesticated 

 races ; resembling in this respect the Wild Horses of Asia 

 described by Pallas,* and in the same degree approxi- 

 mating the Zebrine and Asinine groups. 



It is well known that Cuvierf- failed to detect any cha- 

 racters in the bones or teeth of the different existing species 

 of Equus> or in the fossil remains of the same genus, by 

 which he could distinguish them, except by their differ- 

 ence of size, which yields but a vague and unsatisfactory 

 approximation. MM. H. v. Meyer and Dr. Kaup have, 

 however, pointed out well-marked distinctive characters 

 in the fossil Equidee of the older pliocene and miocene 

 tertiary deposits of the Continent. 



The second and third molars of both jaws in most 

 of the equine fossil specimens of the teeth from our more 

 recent deposits and caverns which I have examined, are 

 narrower transversely in comparison with their antero- 

 posterior diameter than in the existing Horse ; and a 



* ' Zoographia Rosso- Asiatica,' torn. i. p. 255. 

 t ' Ossemens Fossiles,' 4to. torn. ii. pt. i. p. 111. 



2c 



