318 Miscellanies. 



Note on a Molar Tooth of the Horse in the Collection of the Natural 

 History Society of Montreal. 



In a collection of antiquities and fossils presented to the Society 

 by Mr. Little of Newberry, C.W., is a specimen of a molar of an 

 equine animal, labelled as having been found " on the margin of 

 the River Sydenham, nine feet below the surface, near Hunt's 

 Ferry, Township of Dawn. C.W." The question having arisen at 

 the meeting whether this tooth is that of the common horse or of 

 any of the fossil species whose remains have been found in American 

 tertiary deposits, we have compared it with such specimens and 

 figures as are within our reach. The specimen is a middle supe- 

 rior molar ; 3*5 inches in length, 1*2 in its extreme anterio-posterior 

 breadth and 1*1 inch nearly in its transverse measurement. It is 

 not more curved than the molars of the domestic horse, but the 

 folding of its enamel is more complex, especially in the isolated 

 folds. In this last respect and in the dimensions of its crown, it 

 corresponds much more closely with Leidy's figure of the tooth of 

 the extinct species named by him Equus Americanus, than with 

 that of the common horse. The specimen is in a good state of 

 preservation. It is stained black on one side, and the cement has 

 become brown and is somewhat cracked and broken externally, 

 but it has not experienced any change giving evidence of great 

 antiquity. It would not be safe to affirm on the evidence of this 

 single specimen, the occurrence of the fossil horse in Canada ; yet 

 the form of the tooth and the circustances in which it is stated to 

 have been found render this not improbable, and it would be inte- 

 resting to know whether the ground in which the specimen occurred 

 had certainly been undisturbed previously, what was the nature 

 of the bed containing it, and what its other organic remains if any. 

 To these questions we would invite the attention of any collectors 

 or naturalists visiting the locality. 



We may add that there would be nothing extraordinary in the 

 occurrence of the remains of the extinct American horse in Western 

 Canada, since these remains have been found not only in various 

 parts of the United States, but by Sir J. Richardson as far north 

 as Eschsbholtz Bay in Arctic America. Should any further equine 

 remains be found in the locality in question, we should like to 

 have an opportunity of eubmitting them to Dr. Leidy, the best 

 authority at present on this subject, for comparison with his speci- 

 mens. We would caution collectors, however, to be very care- 

 ful in distinguishing remains taken from undisturbed beds, from 

 those that may have been mixed with modern debris. 



