1909-10.] Restoration of an Ancient British Race of Horses. 297 
231 mm. and a width of 32 mm. — in the one the length is 7*30 times, in 
the other 7 A3 times, the width. 
That a similar but perhaps smaller race existed in France about the end of 
the Tertiary period is made evident by a metacarpal in the British Museum 
from Auvergne. This metacarpal, which measures 173 mm. by 24 mm. (i.e. 
in length is 7*20 times the width), belonged to a slender-limbed animal 
which probably measured under 11 hands at the withers.* 
That slender-limbed varieties found their way to England at a remote 
period is proved by a metacarpal in the British Museum from Kent’s Cave, 
Torquay. This metacarpal, which measures 220 mm. by 30*25 mm. (is in 
length 7*27 times the width), doubtless belonged to a fine-boned 13 hands 
horse allied to the Arab-like race which in Pliocene times frequented the 
valley of the Arno. Further, the bones and teeth of slender-limbed horses 
from 12 to 13 hands have been frequently met with during the exploration 
of Roman forts and settlements and of tumuli and crannogs. But notwith- 
standing the large amount of data collected, it has hitherto been impossible 
to feel absolutely certain that the small-pillared teeth and slender limb 
hones from Pleistocene and later deposits belonged to members of the same 
race, or that the Oreston teeth did not, as Owen believed, belong to an ass 
or a zebra. 
Now, however, it has been proved that teeth of the Oreston type and 
cannon bones of the Kent’s Cave type occur in the same animal. The 
proof has been provided by a nearly perfect skull (figs. 15 and 17) and an 
almost complete set of limb bones from the Roman fort of Newstead, near 
Melrose. The skull and limb bones are the remains of a five-year-old pony, 
Arab-like in make, which measured between 12 and 13 hands at the 
withers. In this pony the metacarpals are 214 mm. long and 28*8 mm. 
wide — the length is hence 7*42 times the width at the middle of the shaft. 
In the metacarpals this Newstead horse closely agrees with the small fine- 
boned fossil horses from the valley of the Arno, with the small fossil horse 
of Auvergne and the small fossil horse of Kent’s Cave, Torquay. The two 
last molars (fig. 22) of the Newstead horse, though larger, very closely 
* The examination of cannon bones of slender-limbed ponies of a known size indicates 
that in a 9 hands pony the metacarpal measures 140 mm. to 145 mm., and the metatarsal 
175 mm. to 180 mm., and that as a rule each hand (4 inches) added to the height at the 
withers implies an increase of 20 mm. to the length of the cannon bones. Hence, when the 
metacarpal measures 160 mm. the height may be estimated at 10 hands, when 180 mm. at 
11 hands, when 200 mm. at 12 hands, and when 220 mm. at 13 hands. But in a slender- 
limbed 14 hands horse the metacarpal may be only 235 mm., in a 15 hands horse 250 mm., 
and in a 16 hands horse 265 mm. In coarse-limbed horses and ponies the metacarpals are 
relatively shorter than in fine-limbed breeds, e.g. in a 15 hands horse of the “ forest type” 
the metacarpal may only measure 240 mm. 
