1905-6. 
Professor Ewart on the Tarpan. 
11 
The multiple origin of the domesticated breeds being assumed, 
it follows that, in the case of the Tarpan herds once numerous in 
the east of Europe, it is necessary to enquire whether they con- 
sisted of a wild species, were the offspring of escaped domestic 
breeds, or were crosses between domestic and wild varieties. 
The first account of the Tarpan 1 we owe to Gmelin , who came 
across a troop near Bobrowsk during his journey through Russia 
between 1733 and 1743. He describes them as mouse-coloured, 
with a short crisp mane ; the tail always shorter than in domestic 
horses, sometimes full, sometimes only furnished with short hair ; 
The Tarpan from Yogt and Specht's Natural History of Animals. This, like 
Hamilton Smith’s drawing, has the mane and tail of a young foal. In 
no adult horse, wild or tame, is the tail as short as in the conventional 
drawings of the Tarpan found in modern as well as old works on natural 
history. 
the legs dark from the knees and hocks to the hoofs ; and the head 
thick, with the ears sometimes long, sometimes short. 
Since this description appeared, some Continental naturalists have 
regarded the Tarpan as a true wild species ; others, like Dr Nehring, 
considered it the last survivor of the ancient prehistoric horses of 
Europe modified by an infusion of domestic blood ; while not a few 
agreed with Pallas that the Tarpan herds might very well be the 
offspring of escaped domestic horses. 
1 By the Tarpan I mean the mouse-dun horse of Russian and other 
Continental naturalists, not the so-called “true” Tarpan of Hamilton Smith 
(Naturalists’ Library, vol. xii., 1841). 
