ORDER PACHYDERMATA. 439 



removed from each other : but among the separate races 

 of the Horse the differences are more decidedly remark- 

 able. Compare the Sardinian Horse, small, compact, and 

 nervous, with the large and soft Horses of Holland, or the 

 fleet and elegant Spanish Courser with one of our own dray 

 Horses. In the midst, however, of all these differences 

 which have been so often reproduced, we never find a race 

 arisen with the long ears of the Ass, or any other of the 

 peculiar qualities of this species. The same remark is 

 equally applicable to the Ass ; there are many varieties in 

 this species also, but no horse has ever been found among 

 them. It may be replied, perhaps, that varieties have 

 ceased to be formed ; but, independently of this assertion 

 being unfounded, the onus of indicating the period when 

 the existing varieties were formed, still lies with the ad- 

 vocates of the system we are opposing. In fact, all the 

 examples that can be gathered in this way are totally un- 

 favourable to this hypothesis. The skeletons of the ani- 

 mals preserved by the ancient Egyptians, which existed 

 three or four thousand years ago, have the same characters 

 as those of existing species. We can go no further back 

 for proofs. The fossil remains found in the ancient strata 

 of the earth belong to species which exist no longer. In 

 the genus Equus we shall begin, as first in importance, with 

 the Horse properly so called, Equus Cabalus. Lin. 



This species appears to have been aboriginal in Great 

 Tartary ; but the troops of Wild Horses found there, at 

 the present day, are supposed, with good reason, to have 

 sprung from individuals that had escaped from the tram- 

 mels of domestication. This opinion is founded on the 

 difference of colour among these animals, and the facility 

 with which they can be reduced to servitude. This being 

 the case, it is not possible for us to become acquainted 

 with the species of the Horse in its original purity, entirely 

 exempted from the influence of man, and as it came from 



