NO. 2 



EXTINCT HORSE FROM ALASKA HAY 



IT 



On the south side of Eschscholtz Bay, from Elephant Point east- 

 ward, Quackenbush (op. cit., p. 94, seq. ) collected various remains 

 of Equus, foot bones, a cervical vertebra, some loose teeth and a frag- 

 ment of a lower jaw, with the premolars. The grinding faces of 

 these teeth are shown in fig. 3. The teeth were well worn down. 

 The height of the jaw at the front of the last molar is 90 mm. ; at the 

 front of pm. 4 , 78 mm. ; at the front of pm.,, 45 mm. These measure- 

 ments indicate a horse with a more slender jaw than that found in 

 the type of Equus niobrarensis. This is to be expected on account of 

 the evidently greater age of the animal ; but in the type the width at 

 the front of pm. 2 is 67 mm., in place of 45 mm., in the 

 fragment here described. The following are the meas- 

 urements of these teeth : 



Pm.2, height 10 mm., length 33 mm., width 13.5 mm. 



Pm.s, height length 26 mm., width 15 mm. 



Pm.4, height 35 mm., length 26 mm., width 15.5 mm. 



These teeth appear to belong to Equus niobrarensis 

 alaskce, although the arrangement of the enamel is 

 somewhat less complicated than in the horse from 

 Nebraska. 



The same explorer found indications of the horse 

 along Buckland River (fig. 1 (7)), together with 

 Elephas, Bison, Rangifer, Ovibos, Alee, Ursus, Canis. 

 Mr. Quackenbush visited also the region south of Spaf- 

 arief Bay, along the basin of the Keewalik River (fig. 1 

 (6)) and the Kugruk River (fig. 1 (5)). From both 

 regions he reported Equus remains. Along Candle 

 Creek, a branch of the Keewalik, he found an upper pre- 

 molar, probably the third or the fourth. The height is x ^ 

 81 mm. ; the length, 29 mm. ; the width, 26 mm. ; the length of the pro- 

 tocone, 14.5 mm. It is curved so as to be concave on the inner and the 

 hinder faces. It is referred provisionally to Equus niobrarensis alaskce. 



In the U. S. National Museum are two horse teeth, which were 

 collected somewhere in the region about Kotzebue Sound, or probably 

 Eschscholtz Bay, and presented by the Board of Education of the 

 Department of the Interior. One is a second upper left premolar, 

 with a length of 40 mm. and a width of 26 mm. on the grinding sur- 

 face. There is nothing to distinguish it from the same tooth of 

 Equus caballus, although it is not probable that it belonged to that 

 species. The other tooth, a lower left molar or premolar, differs 

 from that of the domestic horse, and resembles that of Equus 

 niobrarensis. 



Fig. 3. Three 

 lower premolars, 

 No. 14337, Amer. 

 Mus. iMat. Hist. 



