OSBORN, REVIEW OF THE PLEISTOCENE 309 



horses adapted to: (1) forests and upland valleys; (2) high, dry, cold 

 steppes ; ( 3 ) warm deserts and plateaus. In these three chief habitats 

 the horses may be respectively known as the "forest horse," the "steppe 

 horse/'" and the "desert horse." Each has its distinctive coloring, tooth 

 structure, and proportions of the skull, body and limbs, in adaptation to 

 its peculiar mode of life. 



The forest horse is relatively a large, clumsy animal. The face is 

 arched, as in the modern draught horse. The limbs are short, the front 

 cannon bone (Mtc. Ill) being short and stout, the length only 5% times 

 the width. The tail is depressed in contrast with that of the desert 

 horse. According to Ewart this type of horse (E. robustus) occurs at 

 Solutre and in the Neolithic deposits of Ilford (Essex), and Kent. In 

 Aurignaeean times Solutre Avas the site of a great open air Palaeolithic- 

 camp. Toussaint enumerates fragments of at least 100,000 horses, 

 which mingled with other bones of the chase formed a sort of rampart 

 around the camp. The majority of these horses belonged to the stout- 

 headed, short-limbed forest, or Norse type, measuring 54 inches (13.2 

 hands) at the withers, the size of the existing pony. 1 "" The large joints 

 and hoofs were especially adapted to the low-lying marshy ground in the 

 vicinity of forests, and the long teeth and powerful jaws were adapted to 

 feeding during parts of the year on coarse grasses, roots and other hard 

 substances. There is no evidence that the men of the Aurignacean age 

 either bred or reared these animals. The majority of the remains are 

 those of horses from five to seven years of age. This type of horse is 

 engraved on the walls of the cave of Combarelle, where the drawings are 

 chiefly of old Magdalenian age and the pure forest type of horse is most 

 frequently represented. There is also a small, fine-headed type suggest- 

 ing the desert horse, and a larger, long-armed type suggesting the wild 

 ass. 



The desert horse is the Pleistocene animal identified by Richard Owen 

 as an ass (E. asinns fossUis), but considered to be a horse by Ewart and 

 named by him E. gracilis. This is a small animal, not over 12.2 hands 

 in height, slender-limbed, with long, slender front cannon bones (Mtc. 

 Ill), the length being 7y 2 times the width. The head is small, the face 

 fine and narrow, with a straight profile only slightly deflected upon the 

 cranium. The internal cusp (protocone) of the upper molars is short. 

 Remains of an animal of this type are found in the Pliocene of Italy 

 (small, slender-limbed varieties of E. stenonis) and France, and in the 

 Pleistocene of France and northern Africa. It agrees, so far as known, 

 with the existing Celtic pony type (E. caballus celticus), a variety of 



103 Ewart : 0/>. cit. 



