ORIGIN OF PONIES. 66 



bgly remote, thougli comparatively recent, divers varieties 

 have branched off accidentally from the primary species, 

 which, by accident or design, by circumstances of climate, 

 or by care and cultivation, have been first rendered per 

 manent 



It is remarkable and significant that all the most dis- 

 tinct breeds of ponies, with which we are acquainted, are 

 Btill to be found, and appear to have been originated in 

 extreme latitudes either of heat or cold ; latitudes to which 

 the horse does not seem to be indigenous ; to which he has, 

 according to all natural probabilities, been imported ; and 

 in which one would naturally expect him to degenerate, at 

 least in size. It follows, if this view be correct, that at 

 the time when the Greek and Latin languages prevailed, 

 ponies, which were then possibly in progress of forma- 

 tion in regions beyond the ken of early civilization, in 

 the lands which are laid down on the maps of " the world 

 known to the ancients" as countries uninhabitable on 

 account of heat or of cold, and in which distinct ponies do 

 now exist, had not yet been brought at all to the knowl- 

 edge of the civilized world, or, if at all, so rarely as to be 

 regarded as accidental dwarfs and monstrosities, rather 

 than a distinct breed. 



Now, of European ponies, the mcst clearly distinct types 

 are those of the Shetland Isles, of Scotland, in the northern 

 parts of Iceland, and of Sweden. There are also ponies, some- 

 what similar to those of Scotland, in Wales, and others in the 

 New Forest, on the south-western coast of England, which 

 B6em referable to a cross of the same pony with some horse of 

 higher blood. On the whole, it seems likely that the Shet- 

 land, Scottish, Welch, Swedish and Icelandic pony is one 

 and the same animal, as to its origin or original mode oi 

 production, slightly influenced perhaps hy the original 

 type of the horse of which it is a pattern, dimmished in 



