The Horse 351 



The brain of the horse is small, but all the members of 

 the family are noted for their sagacity, intelligence and 

 tenacious memories ; while their timidity, desire to be 

 first in a race, their, conduct on the battlefield, their 

 resentment of injury and appreciation of kindness, all 

 show that their emotional nature is also highly developed. 



It is now generally conceded that the Tarpans of 

 Asia, like the mustangs of the North American plains, 

 the Cumarans of South America and the Brumbies of 

 the Australian Bush, are the descendants of reverted 

 domestic horses, and that the only living wild horse today 

 is the Equus Prejevalsky of the sand deserts of Central 

 Asia, and there seems to be a question as to whether that 

 is a valid species of the true horse, or an intermediate 

 between the horses and asses. In either case it is of 

 little value from a commercial or utilitarian standpoint. 



Of all the various species of partly or wholly domes- 

 ticated horses in different parts of the world, only one 

 variety has any value as a fur-bearing animal, and it 

 was less than ten years ago that furriers began to recog- 

 nize the beauty of the moire marked skins of the foals 

 of the so-called Russian ponies. These hardy animals, 

 resulted from the mixing of escaped domestic horses with 

 the Tarpans, and in spite of the w^ay the young have been 

 slaughtered by the Kamuck and Kirghiz tribes, so that 

 the milk of the mares could be secured for the manufac- 

 ture of Koumyss, they have multiplied until it is esti- 

 mated that there are now over 10,000,000 of these animals 

 on the 850 square miles of sterile, stony and streamless 

 plains or Steppes between the Volga, Chinese Turkestan, 

 the Alutan Mountains and the Caspian Sea, and that the 

 marketing of upwards of 200,000 skins annually the last 

 few years, while it has been a source of revenue to the 

 nomadic tribes who sold them has in no way threatened 

 the destruction of the herds. 



At first the skins were used almost entirely in their 

 natural state for automobile coats, but when it was 

 discovered that they would take the black dye so as to 

 look like broadtail, pony coats for all kinds of wear 

 became so desirable and popular that for a time the 

 skins trebled and quadrupled in value, and for some 



