PLEISTOCENE OF EUROPE, NORTH AFRICA, AND NORTH AMERICA 409 



known as the 'forest horse,' the 'steppe horse,' and the 'plateau horse.' 

 Each has its distinctive coloring, tooth structure, and proportions of skull, 

 body, and limbs. 



In the forest horse we see a relatively large, clumsy animal; the 

 face is broad, short, and not bent down on the cranium, in which respect 

 it resembles other browsing and forest-living types of Herbivora. The 

 limbs are short, the front cannon bone (Mtc. Ill) being short and stout, 

 the length only 53-^ times the, width. The tail is set on low. This type of 

 horse (E. robustus) is found at Solutre and in the Neolithic deposits of 

 Ilford (Essex) and in Kent. 



The desert or plateau horse, widely differing in proportions, is the 

 Pleistocene animal identified by Owen as an ass (E. asinus fossilis) but 

 considered a horse by Ewart, and named by him E. gracilis. This is a small 

 animal, not over 12.2 hands in height, slender-limbed, with long, slender 

 front cannon bones (Mtc. Ill), the length being 714 times the width. The 

 head is small, the face fine and narrow, with a straight profile only slightly 

 deflected upon the cranium. The internal cusp (protocone) of the upper 

 molars is short. Remains of an animal of this type are found in the Pliocene 

 of Italy (small, slender-limbed varieties of E. stenonis) and France, and in 

 the Pleistocene of France and northern Africa. It agrees, so far as known, 

 with the existing Celtic pony type {E. caballus celiicus), a variety of horse 

 distinguished by small, fine head, large eyes, slender limbs, five lumbar 

 vertebrae, now found in more or less pure form in the outlying islands and 

 on the coast of western Europe. This animal is believed to be a northern, 

 hardy, thick-coated relative of the pure desert type, better kno"s\Ti as the 

 Arabian, which gave rise to the modern thoroughbred. 



The steppe or third kind of horse is typified by the existing wild species 

 of the Gobi Desert of central Asia (E. przewalskii). It is characterized by 

 short neck, large head, with a convex profile, short back, like the Celtic 

 pony, and only five lumbar vertebrae and heavy limbs. This type of horse 

 is depicted in the paliEolithic Magdalenian drawings of France. 



Another possible contributor to the breeds of domesticated horses is an 

 animal of the E. sivalensis type in the Upper Pliocene of the Siwaliks of 

 India. This animal is tall, with long, fairly slender limbs, long neck, well 

 set on tail, long face, strongly deflected on the cranium, with a convex pro- 

 file and broad brow, and short protocone. 



Life of the Mediterranean Islands. — Riitimeyer (1869) believed that 

 Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis were stocked with animals by way of Gibral- 

 tar, and perhaps also by Sicily and Malta from Europe. In the islands of 

 Cyprus, Malta, and Crete, as recently explored by Miss Bate,^ we have 

 proof first of a period of connection A\ith the neighboring continents through 

 elevation, second of the isolation of the islands through depression, followed 



> Bate, Dorothea, M. A., Pleistocene Mammalia in Crete. Geol. Mag., n.s.. Decade 5, 

 Vol. II, May, 1905, pp. 193-202. 



