THE HORSE IN SCOTLAND 73 



amongst the tribes of cave-dwellers who frequented caverns by 

 the sea, and subsisted mainly upon the shell-fish of the beach, 

 it was almost unknown. In one of the few caves in which 

 it has been found that at Borness in Kirkcudbrightshire 

 three horse bones were identified as against 630 bones of 

 sheep and 1112 of cattle. In interpreting such evidence as 

 the deposits yield, however, it is well to keep in mind that the 

 bone heaps as a rule represent the remains of human food, 

 and that although in early times horse-flesh was commonly 

 used as food, in later times it was proscribed by Christians 

 and ceased to be used about the year 1000 of our era. 



INFLUENCES WHICH HAVE MODIFIED THE NATIVE RACE 



It is unfortunate that little is known of the finer racial 

 characteristics which the relics of the bone deposits might 

 have yielded to expert scrutiny. As regards the majority of 

 the prehistoric and early historic periods the most we can 

 say is that the horses were invariably small in size, and were 

 yet strong, hardy and active. Much can be learned, however, 

 by reading backwards, as it were, from the representatives 

 of modern breeds, and from their present-day developments 

 tracing the influences which have played upon them. 



In the endeavour to eliminate the results of the later 

 influence of man upon animals by discovering the modern 

 races which most nearly approach in character to the original 

 indigenous forms, it is a safe rule to begin the search in those 

 .areas most remote from the centres of cultivation and civiliza- 

 tion. In discussing the sheep and oxen of Scotland we have 

 seen that the primitive breeds, like the earlier races of 

 man himself have been gradually ousted from the highly 

 cultivated lowlands by newcomers, and have been driven to 

 the strongholds of the mountains and outlying islands. This 

 rule which governs the distribution of the primitive Highland 

 cattle and the old Hebridean, Orkney and Shetland sheep, 

 holds also for horses the horses which survive at the 

 present day in the Hebrides and in Shetland offer the nearest 

 approaches to that native race or races which peopled Scot- 

 land in days before the arrival of man. To these island races 

 we appeal in order to discover the minimum effects of man's 

 influence on modern Scottish breeds. 



