Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/699

Rh sheep, and one stage nearer the horse. Three are only three toes and a rudimentary splint hone in the fore feet, and three toes behind. Two of the premolar teeth are quite like the molars. The ulna is no longer distinct, or the fibula entire, and other characters show clearly that the transition is advancing. In the upper Miocene,Mesohippus is not found, but in its place a fourth form, Miohippus, continues the line. This genus is near the Anchitherium of Europe, but presents several important differences. The three toes in each foot are more nearly of a size, and a rudiment of the fifth metacarpal bone is retained. All the known species of this genus are larger than those of Mesohippus, and none pass above the Miocene.

The genus Protohippus, of the lower Pliocene, is yet more equine, and some of its species equaled the ass in size. There are still three toes on each foot, but only the middle one, corresponding to the single toe of the horse, comes to the ground. This genus resembles most nearly the Hipparion of Europe. In the Pliocene, we have the last stage of the series before reaching the horse, in the genus Pliohippus, which has lost the small hooflets, and in other respects is very equine. Only in the upper Pliocene does the true Equus appear, and complete the genealogy of the horse, which in the Post-Tertiary roamed over the whole of North and South America, and soon after became extinct. This occurred long before the discovery of the continent by Europeans, and no satisfactory reason for the extinction has yet been given. Besides the characters I have mentioned, there are many others, in the skeleton, skull, teeth, and brain, of the forty or more intermediate species, which show that the transition from the Eocene Eohippus to the modern Equus has taken place in the order indicated; and I believe the specimens now at New Haven will demonstrate the fact to any anatomist. They certainly carried prompt conviction to the first of anatomists, who was the honored guest of the Association a year ago, whose genius had already indicated the later genealogy of the horse in Europe, and whose own researches so well qualified him to appreciate the evidence here laid before him. Did time permit, I might give you at least a probable explanation of this marvelous transition, but justice to the comrades of the horse in his long struggle for existence demands that some notice of their efforts should be placed on record.

Besides the horse and his congeners, the only existing Perissodactyles are the rhinoceros and tapir. The last is the oldest type, but the rhinoceros had near allies throughout the Tertiary; and, in view of the continuity of the equine line, it is well worth while to attempt to trace his pedigree. At the bottom of the Eocene, in our Western lake-basins, the tapiroid genus Helaletes is found, represented by numerous small mammals hardly larger than the diminutive horses of that day. In the following epoch of the Eocene, the closely-allied Hyrachyus was one of the most abundant animals. This genus was nearly related to the Lophiodon of Europe, and in its teeth and