Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-01-17
POINTS ON OLD tlOSS
HIS oENEALccY LONGER THAN
THAT OF NEW Works. 400.
ONCE A LITTLE ANIMAL
Had Four Toes and Was but Shent'y
Bigger Than Fox-Direet Evr
dence of Observation-Disclosures
Facts About Mans Best and Faltn'
full Friend.

Frederic A. Lucas, in McClures
Magazine, presents in popular way
the scientific evidence going 10 sho"
the descent of the horse from little
animal with four toes and little Digger
than a fox. The family records Oh the
horse reach backward for something
like 100000 years.
The early horse-we may call him
SO by courtesy, although he was then
far from being true horse-was an
insignificant little creature, apparently
far less likely to succeed in HE
race than his bulky competitors anu
yet, by making the most OF their op-
portunities, his descendants have sur
viyed, While most Of theirs have drop
ped by the wayside; and finally, by
the aid of man. the horse has become
spread over the length and breadth
of the habitable globe.
Now right here it may be asked.
How do we know that the little hyra-
cothere was the progenitor OF the
horse, and how can it be shown that
there is any bond of kinship be-
tween him and, for example, the great
French Percheron? There is only one
way in which we can obtain this
knowledge, and but one method by
which the relationship can be shown,
and that Is by collecting the fossil re-
mains of animals long extinct and
comparing them with the bones of the
recent horse. branch OF science
known as Paleontology. 1t has taken
a very long time to gather the neces-
sary evidence, and 1t has taken a vast
amount of hard work in our western
territories, for "the country that Is as
hot as Hades, watered by stagnant
alkali pools, is almost invariably the
richest in fossils" Likewise it has
called for the expenditure of much
time and more patience to put to-
gether some of this petrifed evidence,
fragmentary in every sense of the
word, and get it into such shape that
1t could be handled by the anatomist.
Still, the work has been done. and,
link by link the chain has been con-
structed that unites the horse of today
with the horse CT very many yester-
days.
Remains in Remote Ages.
The first linFs in this chain are the
remains of the bronze age and those
found among the ruins of the ancient
Swiss lake dwellings,; but earlier still
than these are the bones of horses
found abundantly in northern Europe,
Aatn h. Id I'LL
bones and teeth of some of these
horses are scarcely distinguishable
from those of today, a fact noted in
the name, Equus fraternus, applied
to one species, and when the teeth
are found 1t is at times practically
impossible to say whether they belong
to fossile horse or to a modern ami
NAL. But when enough scattered
bones are gathered to make fairly
complete skeleton it becomes evident
that the fossil horse had proportion
ately larger head and smaller feet
than his existing relative, and that he
was little more like an ass or zebra,
for the latter, despite his gay coat, is a
near relative of the lowly ass. More
over, primitive man made sketches of
the primitive horse, just as he did of
the mammoth. and these indicate that
the horse of those days was something
like an overgrown Shetland pony, low
and heavily built, large-headed and
rough-coated. For the old cave-dwell-
ers of Europe were intimately ac.
quainted with the prehistoric horses
using them for food as they did al
most every animal that fell beneath
their flint arrows and stone axes.
And II one may Judge from the abund-
ance of bones, the horses must have
roamed about in bands, Just as the
horses escaped from civilization roam,
or have roamed, over the pampas of
South America and the prairies of the
west
The horse was just as abundant in
North America in Pleistocene time as
in Europe; but there is no evidence
to show that IL was contemporary with
early man IN North America, and
even were this the case, 1t is generally
believed that long before the discov.
cry OF America the horse had disap-
peared
Demonstrated in Europe.
Long before the dawn of history the
horse was domesticated In Europe
and Caesar found the Germans. and
even the old Britons. using wal
chariots drawn by horses-for the first
use man seems to have made of the
horse was to aid him in killing OF,
his fellow man, and not until com
paratively modern times was the ami
NAL employed in the peaceful arts OF
agriculture. The immediate predeces
sors of these horses were consider
ably smaller, being about the size and
build of a pony, but they were yer,
much like q horse in structure. saw,
that the teeth were shorter, As the,
lived during Pliocene times. they hav,
been named "Pliohippus."
Going back into the past a ste,
further, though a pretty long stem
we reckon by years, we come upon
number of animals very much Tx
horses, save for certain cranial ne