ITS NEAREST EXISTING RELATIONS 



75 



supplies. The characters of the bones preserved, and 

 certain rude but graphic representations carved on 

 bones or reindeers' antlers found in several caves in the 

 South of France, enable us to know that they were rather 

 small in size and heavy in build, with large heads and 

 rough, shaggy manes and tails — much like, in fact, the 

 present wild horses of the steppes of the South of Russia. 

 These horses were domesticated by the inhabitants of 

 Europe before the dawn of history. Ca?sar found the 

 Ancient Britons and the Germans using war-chariots 

 drawn by horses. It is, however, doubtful whether the 

 majority of the horses existing now are derived directly 

 from the indigenous wild horses of Western Europe, it 

 being more probable that they are the descendants of 

 horses imported through Greece and Italy from Asia, de- 

 rived from a still earlier domestication, followed by 

 gradual improvement through long-continued attention 

 bestowed upon their breeding and training. Such an 

 importation of horses from the East, for the purpose of 

 improving the races of Europe, has taken place at various 

 intervals throughout the whole of the historic period. The 

 most ancient monumental records of Egypt give no sign 

 of the existence of the horse in that country ; but about 

 1900 B.C. (long after the introduction of the ass) it begins 

 to appear, there, as elsewhere, being first employed in 

 drawing chariots used in war and processions. It was 

 not till a comparatively recent period that the horse was 



