THE LIVING WORLD. 
555 
witli creatures who require no other environment. If we regard the tarpan as 
the' original of the modern horse, and these steppes as the cradle of the species, 
what vistas of antiquity, what 
forcible suggestion of aeons 
during which the changes 
were worked which distinguish 
the tarpaii from the famous 
Bedouin steed, or from the 
blooded stock of Kentucky. 
What an illustration of that 
possible change for which mo¬ 
dern science accounts by the 
theory of natural selection! 
If, on the other hand, we 
choose to regard the tarpan as 
finding his ancestors in horses 
which straggled from the habi¬ 
tations of man or from the 
herds of wild horses, what an 
illustration is this return to 
a more primitive type of the scientific doctrine of degeneracy as the comple¬ 
ment of the doctrine of evolution. Zoology still regards either answer as doubt¬ 
ful, but as has 
been said, either 
view leads to 
the same con¬ 
clusion in regard 
to the adapta¬ 
tion of life to 
its conditions. 
The tarpan 
lacks the grace 
offoim, the sug¬ 
gestion of facile 
but vigorous 
power, and the 
beauty which 
has made the 
horse so favor¬ 
ite an illustra¬ 
tion that even 
the Bible again 
and again em¬ 
ploys the type 
i n completing 
i t s wonderful 
A SHOT AT CLOSE QUARTERS. simileS. 
The tarpan does not even look like the horse; his stature may be fully as 
great as that of the useful broncho, but his want of symmetry suggests rather 
