ON SKULLS OF HORSES FROM THE ROMAN FORT AT NEWSTEAD. 579 



probably originally introduced from Spain. If the temper of the Kattiawar horse 

 merits the term indomitable, still more is this term applicable to the temper of the wild 

 horse. Having decided to proceed in a given direction, Prejvalsky's horse is difficult to 

 turn aside — for ordinary obstacles are either cleared or broken down. 



A yearling stallion placed in a loose-box on arriving at Penycuik, some years ago, 

 scrambled over a door considerably higher than himself; and a mare now in my 

 possession sometimes walks deliberately up to a barbed-wire fence within an inch of her 

 own height, and apparently without effort leaps over. The same mare also frequently 

 enters a small stream and walks under a bridge to a patch of grass she has a liking for. 

 Horses of the Forest type can hardly at first be persuaded to cross water — they have a 

 strong inherited dislike of anything that may lead to their being bogged. If the Irish 

 hunter, as his skull so clearly suggests, includes a Prejvalsky-like variety amongst his 

 more dominant ancestors, we can understand his determination and staying power, and 

 especially his facility in scrambling over walls, clearing fences, and usually without 

 hesitation crossing streams and ditches. 



I mentioned that Professor Noack believed that he had conclusively proved 

 Prejvalsky's horse to have an affinity to the pony. Judged by the form of the skulls it 

 is evident that Prejvalsky's horse and the Celtic pony represent extreme types ; but if 

 by a pony is meant any horse under a certain size, then Noack is quite right in his 

 contention. Some time ago I received from Sulu — a small island not far from Borneo 

 — a skull which, in its profile, and in the relation of the face to the cranium, the teeth, 

 and the narrowness of the groove between the occipital condyles, is almost identical 

 with the skull of a three years old Prejvalsky horse. As this skull belonged to an 

 animal under 1 2 hands in height, it supports Noack's view ; but it at the same time 

 shows how important it is, when speaking of ponies, to mention the race or variety to 

 which they belong. 



One of the questions asked by Salensky is — " Had Prejvalsky's horse in the past a 

 wider geographical distribution than it has to-day ? " In the Reliquise Aquitanicse there 

 is a reproduction of an engraving of a horse on a piece of horn found in the La Madelaine 

 Cave. It is no exaggeration to say that this engraving (fig. 4) emphasises the chief 

 points of Prejvalsky's horse better than any of the drawings or photographs of the 

 specimens recently imported from Mongolia. The engraving (probably the work of a 

 member of the Solutrian tribe of Palseoliths) brings out the heavy head, long face, and 

 short back, but especially the peculiarities of the tail. It shows better than any recent 

 drawings that the hair of the upper half of the dock is short, and sometimes bristles 

 out at nearly right angles to the long hair growing from the rest of the dock. The 

 writer of the description of this engraving in the Reliquise Aquitanicse, says : " Why, 

 however, the old artist roughened the hair near the root of the tail it is difficult to say." 

 Now that we have had an opportunity of studying the tail of Prejvalsky's horse, we 

 realise that the old artist roughened the hair near the root of the tail because nature 



TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. XLV. PART III. (NO. 20). 81 



