ABSTRACT
The history of the horse is lost in antiquity. Remains of this animal in a domesticated condition have been found in the Swiss lake-dwellings, belonging to the Neolithic period. • At the present time the number of breeds is great, as may be seen by consulting any treatise on the horse. a Looking only to the native ponies of Great Britain, those of the Shetland Isles, Wales, the New Forest, and Devonshire are distinguishable; and so it is, among other instances, with each separate island in the great Malay archipelago.ll Some of the breeds present great differences in size, shape of ears, length of mane, proportions of the body, form of the withers and hind quarters, and especially in the head. Compare the racehorse, dray-horse, and a Shetland pony in size, configuration, and disposition; and see how much greater the difference is than between the seven or eight other living species of the genus Equus. I
'Riitimeyer, Fauna der Pfahlbauten, 1861, p. 122. • See Youatt on the Horse:]. Lawrence on the Horse, 182g; W. C. L. Martin, History of
the Horse, 1845: Col H. Smith, in Nat. Library, Horses, 1841, vol. xii: Professor Veith, Die naturgesch. Hawsiiugethiere, 1856.
