( 30I ) 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



WILD HORSESc 

 Wild Horses in Australia and America — Tarpans — Prejevalsky's Horse. 



Wild Horses in Australia and America. — In Australia, 

 there are many herds of wild horses, which are descended from 

 escaped or "turned out" domesticated animals. Those of 

 America are usually supposed to be of a similar ancestry. 

 This idea is, however, open to doubt ; for fossil remains of 

 horses like unto those of the present time, or closely akin to 

 them, are to be found nearly all over North and South 

 America. Considering their former abundance in prehistoric 

 times, and the favourable conditions for equine life which 

 appear since then to have existed in the New World, it 

 seems highly improbable that there were no horses on that 

 continent at the time of the Spanish discovery. This doubt is 

 still more strengthened by the fact that Northern Europe was 

 in communication with North America hundreds of years 

 before Columbus first sighted the Bahama Islands. 



Tarpans. — " The nearest approach to truly wild horses 

 existing at present are the so-called Tarpans, which occur in 

 the steppe-country north of the Sea of Azoff, between the 

 river Dnieper and the Caspian. They are described to be of 



