318 
W. J. MARTIN. 
by many hundreds of feet of alluvial deposits of the Quaternary 
Epoch. 
From the great variations in the size of the bones of the 
fossil horse found in America, it would be safe to assert that 
perhaps all the variations now so common among our domestic 
horses, was to a greater extent common among the fossil species. 
Bones of the fossil horse have been found in the quaternary 
deposits of both North and South America, that greatly exceeded 
in size the bones of our largest draft horses. From these down¬ 
wards, all the variations in size can be traced by the bones of the 
fossil horse to animals that were even smaller than our present 
breeds of ponies. Not only are the bones of fossil horses found 
in this country that do not differ in any essential manner from 
the bones of our present race of horses, but there has also 
been found in many sections of this country the bones of 
an extinct animal from which our present horse species have 
descended. 
It will be seen from the above, that the western hemisphere, 
instead of having been destitute of an indigenous race of horses 
(as it has been so long erroneously taught), was in reality the 
original home of the equine species and that it was by migration 
from this country that they spread over Asia and Europe. It 
has always been claimed heretofore that the horse had become 
extinct on the western hemisphere before prehistoric man had 
made his appearance in the country, and that previous to its in¬ 
troduction into the country by the Spaniards, the animal was 
totally unknown. It is true, that the graves of the mound 
builders have been most minutely searched in nearly all parts of 
the country, and of the vast amount of relics found in them, such 
as weapons of war and of the chase, household utensils and 
religious symbols, all more or less decorated or engraved with 
the images of the birds and beasts with which these people were 
familiar, no image of the horse has as far as I am aware ever been 
found previous to the one found on Dauphins Isle in Mobile Bay. 
This find would seem to prove couclusively that prehistoric 
man in America was quite familiar with the horse. 
