THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 
29 
Dr. Buckland, were discovered fossil bones of the tiger, bear, wolf, 
fox, weasel, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, and deer, 
and an immense number of the hones of the hyaena. 
In the earlier ages, some of those collossal hones were supposed 
to belong to gigantic races of mankind, and hence the traditions of 
giants, possessed by every country in Europe ; but, it is an authen- 
ticated fact, acknowledged by all geologists, that no traces of man or 
his works have ever been discovered in any of the diluvium strata. 
Leibnitz, in his “Protogea,” mentions the fossil bones of a unicorn, 
discovered at Quedlimbourg, in 1663. They were found in a cal- 
careous and gypseous hill, and after being collected, a sketch was 
made of the animal, such as it was pretended to be : but a single 
glance at the sketch is sufficient to shew that it was done by very 
ignorant hands, and taken after parts most incongruously joined. 
The bones of the horse seemed to have formed the principal part 
of the conformation, with a considerable portion of the muzzle, a 
piece of the humerus, a lower tooth, and an unguinal phalanx of 
the rhinoceros. It was supposed by Cuvier, hut now denied by 
most of our eminent geologists, that the diluvium strata on which 
the animals we have described have been found embedded, was the 
consequence of a sudden inundation of water. It will he necessary 
briefly to allude to a few important facts connected with this subject, 
that are acknowledged by all parties : — -First, that after all the strata 
which compose the crust of our globe had been formed, a great 
portion of the earth has been covered with water. Secondly, that 
the period or epoch which relates to this history was one of immense 
time, and that the whole surface was densely peopled by various 
orders of living creatures, some of them, as we have seen, not dis- 
tinguishable from existing species. Thirdly, that great and con- 
siderable changes must have taken place since that epoch in the 
climate of different parts of the world; and, confining our attention 
to our own island for an example of this, we find that there then 
flourished on its surface the luxurious vegetation of a tropical clime. 
In the course of time, however, the whole scene vanished, with 
various orders of living creatures, then ranging the plain or swim- 
ming the lake, such as the tiger, the elephant, the rhinoceros, and 
the hippopotamus; while their contemporary congeners, as the 
horse, deer, ox, &c. were left behind. Shortly after this man 
appears on its surface. 
When we carry our minds back to this subtertiary period — • 
which, geologically speaking, is so recent that it may be con- 
sidered as only just gone by — we receive the accounts with 
surprise and almost incredulity. It must be admitted, that they 
at first seem much more like the dreams of fiction and romance 
than the sober results of calm and deliberate investigation; but to 
