70 THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS 



type which he has designated the Celtic pony (Equus agilis 

 celticus] and which attains its most characteristic development 

 in the small yellowish dun, long and strong maned, short 

 docked, shaggy ponies of northern Iceland (see, Fig. 15). 

 These lack any trace of "chestnuts " or callosities on the inner 

 surface of the hind legs, of "ergots" or fetlock callosities 

 on all legs, and possess highly specialized tails with a thick 

 bunchy tail-lock which develops in winter and shields the 

 thighs from rain and storm. 



Did this slender-limbed graceful horse which predomi- 

 nated on the plains of the Glacial Age the "plateau" type 

 of Ewart (Equus agilis] survive in Scotland at the advent 

 of man 2 If man did find it when he first settled on the coasts 

 of North Britain, did he succeed in taming it and turning it 

 to his own uses, or did the Neolithic wanderers bring with 

 them from the continent, horses already domesticated, which 

 were to form the foundation of our modern breeds ? 



To these questions it is impossible to give dogmatic 

 answers, mainly owing to the scant examination given to 

 the treasures of many an early Scottish excavation yielding 

 animal remains. But the presumptive evidence is strong 

 that the "plateau" horse was domesticated in this or another 

 country, and formed part of the domestic stock of the people 

 of the New Stone Age, for small slender-limbed horses have 

 been characteristic of Scotland from time immemorial. That 

 the horse still existed in Scotland just prior to or con- 

 temporaneous with the arrival of the Neolithic peoples, is 

 hinted at by the discovery of bones, of what particular race 

 of horse has not been determined, in the Fifty- Foot Raised 

 Beach at Shewalton near Irvine in Ayrshire. This Fifty- 

 Foot Beach, it will be remembered, is that which has yielded 

 the earliest evidence of man's appearance in Scotland, and 

 though it contains, in its development on the east coast, 

 skeletons of Whales and implements manufactured from Deer 

 antlers and used by man, it has hitherto afforded no indica- 

 tion of the presence of domestic animals. 



