Correspondence — B. Hobson. 383 



somewhat deflected face, and the crown of the fourth premolar about 

 twice the length of its 'pillar'; (4) a type characterized by short 

 broad metacarpals, a short face, broad and flat between the orbits, 

 and nearly in a line with the cranium, and by the crown of the fourth 

 premolar being twice the length of its 'pillar'; and (5) a type with 

 short wide metacarpals, the face long and strongly deflected, and the 

 crown of the fourth premolar about 1-5 times the length of its 

 'pillar'. Only the varieties characterized by molars with short 

 'pillars' are dealt with in this communication. The possible ancestors 

 of the short-pillared varieties are Equus sivalensis of Indian Pliocene 

 deposits, E. sfenotits of the Pliocene deposits of Europe and North 

 Africa, and a new species, E. gracilis. 



Arabs, barbs, thoroughbreds, and other modern breeds with a long 

 deflected face, broad and prominent between the orbits, and the limbs 

 slender, seem to have mainly sprung from E. sivalensis, while certain 

 unimproved breeds, with a deflected face but very short 'pillars', are 

 probably related to E. stenonis. Exmoor, Hebridean, Iceland, and 

 other ponies of the ' Celtic ' type, as well as ponies found in the 

 South of France, the West Indies, and Mexico, characterized by 

 a fine narrow skull, slender limbs, and the absence of ergots and hind 

 chestnuts, are regarded as the descendants of E. gracilis, which 

 includes (1) the small species of the English drift described by Owen 

 as a fossil ass or zebra {Asimis fossilis) ; (2) the small species of 

 French Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits known to palseontologists as 

 E. ligeris ; and (3) the small species of North African Pleistocene deposits 

 known as E. asinus atlanticus, and hitherto believed to be closely 

 related to, if not the ancestor of, zebras of the Burchell type. 

 By crossing experiments evidence has been obtained of the wide 

 distribution of horses of the E. gracilis type ; that broad-browed 

 Arabs and thoroughbreds with the face nearly in a line with the 

 cranium are mainly a blend of a southern variety of E. gracilis 

 {E. cahallus lihycus) aniX a horse of the 'forest' or Solutre type, and 

 that lieavy breeds have not inherited their coarse limbs from a species 

 closely allied to the wild horse of Mongolia. 



COIl,I?,ESFO]SriDE3SrCE!. 



VORTICOSE MOVEMENT IN THE EAETHQUAKE OF BENAVENTE, 



PORTUGAL. 



Sir, — On May 14 I visited the well-known convent of Batalha 

 (6 miles south of Leiria) in Portugal. On ascending to the roof 

 the caretaker drew my attention to the effect on the building of 

 the earthquake of Benavente, which occurred at 5 p.m. on April 23, 

 1909. The roof (of stone) is adorned with numerous four-sided 

 pyramidal Gothic pinnacles. In two of these, while the lower part 

 of each pinnacle has retained its original place, the upper part has 

 been displaced by the earthquake and partially rotated, so that the 

 angle of the upper part, facing (say) north, is turned through part of 



