THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 75 
this early period. We have already seen that they existed on our 
island long before man was created ; and the probability is, that 
the breed which the ancient Britons then possessed were descend- 
ants of the olden race, — modified greatly, of course, in consequence 
of the change of climate which had gradually taken place during 
an immense period of time. Whether the peninsula of Arabia 
possessed horses, at the epoch to which our history refers, which we 
are certain that our country did, we have not the means of clearly 
ascertaining ; the probability is, that she did not. We find Arabia 
to be an elevated table land, sloping on the north gently towards 
the Syrian desert, and encircled along the sea coast with a belt of 
flat sandy ground. The soil of this flat country, from its regular 
inclination towards the sea, as well as from the large beds of salt 
and marine exuviae with which it is interspersed, appears to have 
been at no great geological period a part of the bed of the ocean. 
This flat country produces the principal pasturage, and contains 
rich groves of dates and other fruits. The interior of the country 
is chiefly burning sandy deserts, lying under a sky almost perpe- 
tually without clouds, and stretching into immense and boundless 
plains, where the eye meets nothing but the uniform horizon of a 
wild and dreary waste. 
It is observed, that the sea, particularly on its western coast, 
still continues to recede. The reefs of madrepore and coral which 
abound in the Arabian Gulf, and in some parts rise several fathoms 
above the sea, are increasing and coming nearer the shore. Thus 
this flat fertile part of the country is constantly extending its limits. 
Muza is mentioned by Arrian as a sea-port of Arabia Felix; we now 
find it at a distance of several miles from the sea. In the southern 
part of the Arabian Gulf the sea is also receding from the land. 
From these facts we come to the conclusion, that, at the period 
when horses were freely ranging throughout the continent of Eu- 
rope, the present flat fertile land of Arabia, if not the whole pe- 
ninsula, was covered with sea ; and it appears altogether absurd 
to suppose that Nature would have placed her first-born pair of 
horses on such a desolate and sandy soil, even if it were not so. 
That Great Britain was once connected with France there can 
scarcely be a doubt. The nature of the cliffs, similarity of strata, 
and other circumstances, sufficiently prove this ; and all tends to 
increase the opinion, that Great Britain has as good a right to be 
considered as the primaeval birth-place of this noble animal as any 
other country on the globe. It is true, that the present state of our 
knowledge is not such as to warrant us in coming to any certainty 
on the subject, but, on the whole, I consider it to be very probable. 
The earliest historical account of the horse comes from Arabia. 
The author of the Book of Job is supposed by Dr. Hales to have 
lived 184 years before the birth of Abraham. The scene of the 
