562 PROFESSOR J. C. EWART 



In some horse skulls a line between the foramen magnum and the incisor border 

 touches the posterior border of the palatine bone, and the hard palate is nearly parallel 

 with the basi-cranial axis. Even in such skulls the face is not exactly in line with the 

 cranium, for when a line is carried through the basi-cranial axis it emerges a considerable 

 distance above level of the incisors (PI. II. fig. 6). In other horse skulls a line ex- 

 tending between the foramen magnum and the incisor border may be 25 mm. below 

 the level of the posterior border of the palatine bones, and a line passing through 

 the basi-cranial axis may emerge about midway between the posterior border of the 

 orbit and the tips of the nasals (PI. II. fig. 7) ; in such skulls the face is so bent 

 downwards on the cranium that the hard palate forms a marked angle with the basi- 

 cranial axis.* In three of the Newstead skulls, a line carried through the basi-cranial 

 axis indicates that in some of the horses in the possession of the Romans or their 

 auxiliaries the face was even less bent than in modern examples of the Forest variety. 

 This is borne out when PL II. fig. 6 (a Newstead skull) is compared with PI. I. fig. 2 

 (the skull of a modern Iceland pony of the Forest type). 



In the Newstead skulls of the Forest type one also notices that the temporal 

 ridges are well developed ; that the orbits are nearly circular and surrounded by wide- 

 rimmed margins ; that there is a preorbital depression for the elevator muscle {Levator 

 labii proprius) of the upper lip ; that the occipital condyles are separated inferiorly by a 

 wide groove (PL I. fig. 3) ; and that, as might be expected in a Forest form, the incisors 

 project well forwards (PL I. fig. 1.) From the fact that the 547 mm. skull has a short, 

 broad, concave face, it may be assumed that it belonged to a horse of the Forest variety ,+ 

 i.e. to a stout horse with a heavy mane and tail, a short neck, very long body (with six 

 lumbar vertebrae), round quarters, a low set-on tail, short strong legs, thick fetlock joints 

 and broad hoofs — a horse built on the lines of the Highland ponies (PL III. fig. 9) used 

 by deer-stalkers, and of the smaller kinds of long-bodied Flemish horses with a short, 

 broad, dished face. Three skulls of this type have thus far been found at Newstead. 



From the Roman skulls of the Forest type in which the face is only slightly bent 

 downwards on the cranium, as in the elk, I shall pass to the Newstead skulls of the 

 Steppe type, in which the face forms a well-marked angle with the cranium as in sheep 

 and oxen, and in E. Scotti of the American Pleistocene. 



* Professor Lankester, in his paper on the Okapi, points out that " the whole brain-case or post-orbital region 

 of the skull of the Bovidae appears to be bent down as on a joint across the junction of the cranial and facial por- 

 tions of the skull " ; and he adds, " there is good ground for connecting the presence of the deflection of the cranial 

 cavity above noted with the mechanical conditions arising from the use of horns having the position and direction of 

 those found in Bovida; and the Giraffe " (" On Okapia," Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. xvi. pt. 6). If, as Professor Lankester 

 suggests, the deflection is connected with the use of horns, it should doubtless be regarded as due to the downward 

 bending of the cranium on the face. If, on the other hand, the deflection is connected with grazing, with feeding on 

 short herbage close to the ground, it might be more accurate to regard it as due to the bending downwards of the 

 face on the cranium. There is no evidence that any of the ancestors of the Equidse possessed horns, or that either in 

 Prejvalsky's horse or the other recent Equidte with a pronounced deflection is the forehead used for defence or attack. 

 Moreover, in the Elk (Alces), notwithstanding the large horns, the face is nearly in a line with the cranium 



t This view is supported by the 547 mm. Newstead skull agreeing in the frontal and other indices with the skull 

 of an Iceland pony (PI. I. fig. 2) of the Forest type ; e.g. in the Newstead skull the frontal index is 6P29, and in the 

 Iceland skull 61 30. 



