74 THE HORSE 



between them can be detected. In this sense we 

 may speak of Equus caballus having existed in America 

 before its introduction by the Spaniards, although it 

 is commonly supposed that at the time of the conquest 

 no horses, either wild or domesticated, were to be 

 found on the continent. 1 This is the more remark- 

 able as, when imported from Europe, the horses 

 that ran wild proved by their rapid multiplication in 

 the plains of South America and Texas that the 

 climate, food, and other circumstances were highly 

 favourable to their existence. The former great abun- 

 dance of EqtddcB in America, their extinction, and their 

 perfect acclimatisation when reintroduced by man, 

 form curious, but as yet unsolved problems in geo- 

 graphical distribution. 



In Europe, wild horses were extremely abundant 

 in the Neolithic, or polished-stone period. Judging 

 by the quantity of their remains found associated with 

 those of the men of that time, the chase of these animals 

 must have been one of their chief occupations, and they 

 must have furnished one of their most important food- 



1 The usual statement as to the complete extinction of the horse 

 in America is thus qualified, as there is a possibility of the animal 

 having still existed, in a wild state, in some parts of the continent 

 remote from that which was first visited by the Spaniards, where 

 they were certainly unknown. It has been suggested that the horses 

 whish were found by Cabot in La Plata in 1530 cannot have been 

 introduced. See M. Wilckens's 1 Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der 

 Paliiontologie der Hausthiere ' (Biolog. Centralhlat., 1S89). 



