154 THE HORSE AND HIS PEDIGREE. 



Great Ice Age the horse had reached only the stage 

 of development shown us now by the new Central 

 Asian species, and that it has since been improved 

 (mainly, no doubt, by human care and selection) 

 to the graceful beauty of the modern Arab, while 

 its brethren of the Siberian ])lains, left entirely to 

 their devices, have retained to this day the coarse 

 points and clumsy outline which distinguished 

 their early preglacial ancestors. It is interesting 

 thus to be enabled to trace by gradual stages the 

 development of a single great line of animals from 

 the diminutive little five-toed eocene species, 

 through so many and diverse intermediate forms, 

 to the tall, stately, and noble race-horse of our 

 own modern civilized epoch. 



