The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-10-05
THE MAN AND THE HORSE.
Prehistoric Americans Probably Used
the Animal for Purposes
of Food.
A Question Settled by the Dis
covery Of a Quadruped's
Skull.
1t Was the Skull of 3 Horse Found
Among . Lot of Human
Implements.

The genealogy of tho horse has been
most admirably worked out in various pub
locations, and the fact has long been estab-
lished that the genus originated on the
North American continent. says O writer in
the Scientific American. Th question.
however, as to whether prehistoric man in
America had tho horse a. a contemporary
has been a disputed point. This question
may now be considered set At rest by the
discovery of a skull Of an extinct species Of
horse in strata with human implements.
This discovery was announced by Prof. Z.
d. Cope, at the meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science,
held in Warrington the past month
(August). A skull of a horse was exhibited
TO the members by Prof. Cope, who
pointed out the characters Of the teeth and
who stated in would be impossible
for any one to separate the fossil teeth
from those of tho quagga and zebra if tho
three were all thrown together. In minor
characters, such as those of the size of the
bones, the differences are p%srcsptible. So
there is no doubt the skull represents an
animal different from any now living. That
1t was a horse, however. any ono could see.
The most curious thing about the skull
was its condition. The frontal bone had
been crushed in exactly as We see in the
case OF animals slaughtered for food. The
friable bones protecting the eye sockets
were intact, as wers also the long nasal
bones. Found in the Same bed with the
skull was a stone hammer that bore evident
marks of having been fashioned by the
hand Of man.
What inference was to be drawn from
this? In the first place it has been sus-
pected and considered probable that early
man on this continent had been contempo-
raneous with a horse, though not the pres-
emit living species, but no direct proof had
hitherto been found. When Europeans
landed on the new continent, the horse was
an unknown animal to the natives. So it
had evidently long been extinct. All the
horses now found in either North or South
America came from stock originally brought
over by Europeans. But here we had evil
dence in the association of q human imple-
ment and a horses skull that man and
horse had lived together; and the peculiar
fracture of the skull Of the latter leads to
the belief hat the animal had met its death
at the hands of man.
This fact opens several questions. What
became Of the race Of horses that once
lived on the continentl Were they OK
ssitninaeeu ny savage man as clVlilZed man
has exterminated the bison? Did they
once serve as beasts of burden or were they
used only as food? Were they wild or do
mesticated?
1t seems probable that they were not
uaed for any other purpose than as food,
and that they existed only in a wild state,
for 1t 10 scarcely reasonable to suppose that
having once been used by man and so
domesticated, their use would ever have
been forgotten or the breed allowed to die
out. Neither is it probable that they were
sxterminated solely by the agency of con
temporaneous man, for we know that in
spite OF the use of tho bison by the Indians