The Washington herald., 1911-02-05

OF nufSelr. Tne name OF the volume is
The Age Of Mammals" and its able
writer is Henry Fairfield Osborne, whom
all the informed certify as one Of the
great authorities in his subject in the
world The publishers, the Macmillan
Company. have put between the covers a
large number Of the sketches Of the ami
mails Of the far past made by Charles r.
Knight
Thread your way through these pages
and the great labyrinth Of scientific Lat
inzed names and you'll get a complete
history Of the horse, up to the time that
there ceased to be any horse In North
America For 1T the end Of the NAM
malian age there was widespread extinc-
ton Of Quadrupeds In the entire northern
hemisphere. The American horse Of to-
day is the descendant Of the animals
that were brought here by Europeans
and the first settlers. Some Of the horses
Of Cortez and the animals abandoned by
de Soto became the ancestors OF the wild
horses of this continent.
Join these facts to the statement that
''the horse (Equus) Is unquestionably de-
rived from North America" and you
seem to be on a promising trail.
Wyoming Tracea
With sort Of time chart before you.
which Will show you where In the order
OF time comes the Eocene division Of the
age Of mammals, you are ready to note
that in Western Wyoming explorations
went forward for thirty-eight years in
what are called the Wasatch formations
and that there was found the earliest
type of the American horse, Eohippus.
This light-limited creature was prob
ably a typical animal Of the plains and
the open country in that time. and his
remains make up a third Of the total col
lectiops which these two score years of
study have brought to light Eleven spe-
cies in all have been found In this region
All Of them were animals Of the size Of
foxes. very graceful. with fight limbs.
and having large brain. The horse Of
that time had several toes. however. The
hind feet have 1.-THE vestigial nth digit. %
In the latter portion Of the Eocene time
horses were found with -four digits on
the fore feet"
The passing Of this time found Europe
and Western America making q single
zoological region called Holarctica, and
there was a mixing by migrations back
and forth and by fresh invasions Of sim
liar types from the North Of the mann
mails Of the Old World and the New. In
this Oligocene ume the student gets his
first knowledge Of the life Of the great
plains region Of North America.
The horses stin are small, with limbs
that are extremely slender, very swift
animals, '.models Of grace and beauty" /"
BY the middle Of tho epoch they were
beginning to split into two types. the
forest-living type and tho browsing type.
All classes Of mammals. indeed. were
coming to separate into the plains-living
and open country types and the forest
and river living types.
The GfasiHg Horse.
BY the close Of the next division Of the
mammalian age. called the Miocene. AZ
rica. Europe. and Asia made one great
sociological realm. with North America a.
an outlying region. distant. but yet re-
hted." Ii time South America united
With North America and entered into
this worldwide distribution Of snimals.
The mastodons Of. Africa entered Europe
and iater reached North America The
hitter portion Of the time was married BY