THE AMERICAN HORSE. 415 



as an irrefutable proof of the evolution theory founded upon the close study of 

 ancient fossil remains. Prof. Marsh has named a species of fossil horse found in 

 North America, which is closely allied to the present living animal, equus frater- 

 nus — a brotherly horse, thus indicating its close resemblance to our useful assist- 

 ant and companion. 



Having had occasion to send to Paris to purchase some rare maps of the 

 15th and i6th centuries, I received among them the map of Sebastian Cabot, 

 " Piloto Mayer " of Charles the Fifth, King of Spain. This map, drawn in a cir- 

 cular projection by Cabot himself, on which he has delineated his own and the 

 discoveries of John Cabot, is of singular value as representing the true state of 

 geography and discovery in the early portion of the i6th century, and was drawn 

 up prior to the year 1546-47. Sebastian Cabot having left for England to take 

 service there in 1547, this map was drawn by him while he was in the Spanish 

 service previous to that date. 



Now it is an incontestible fact that Cabot went in 1527 to the east coast of 

 South America on an exploring voyage, that he discovered the rivers LaPlata and 

 Parana, and explored them some distance inland, returning to Spain in 1530. 



Upon examining that map I find that the Rio LaPlata was explored up to the 

 ;25th parallel of North Latitude, and Spanish names given to its branches and all 

 prominent points ; and in addition he has marked on the map pictures of the na- 

 tives, prominent animals and some trees, and that at the head of the LaPlata 

 with the Puma and Parrot, or perhaps the Condor, he has given the horse as 

 apparently a quadruped that existed then in those vast plains of the Gran 

 Chaco, where to-day they roam in countless herds. It may be claimed that this 

 is not proof of their native origin, but we claim that it is a fair presumption, for nei- 

 ther Spaniards in Peru, nor other parts of America, or even Portugese, had been 

 long enough in South America for the few Spanish horses introduced to have 

 iroamed wild from Peru to the head of the Paraguay and Parana Rivers and in- 

 creased in numbers sufficiently to have attracted the attention of the Spanish ex- 

 plorers. The period was too short, and the distance too great from the Spanish 

 possessions in Peru across the vast forests of the Andes, for such a rapid increase. 

 We can reconcile this discrepancy only by believing that the paternity of the vast 

 herds of the Argentine Republic, and of Paraguay, was a native breed of Ameri- 

 can horses ; mixing afterward with the Spanish breed introduced by the conquer- 

 ors. Not twenty years had passed between the discovery of Peru and the dis- 

 covery of the Rio LaPlata. 



