The Pony at Work.
It has already been explained that the Shetland pony is now little used
for work in his native Islands, having been displaced by larger ponies
and horses as the development of roads has substituted driving for
riding, and carts for the creels and pack-saddles which are now found
only in the remoter districts.
[Illustration: A TEAM OF MARES.]
The progressive disuse, however, of the pony, as a work animal in
Shetland, has been accompanied by a much greater increase in its
use elsewhere. This has specially been the case in the employment
of ponies in coal-pits, which grew to its height during the very
period in which the use of roads became general in Shetland, and in
which, therefore, but for some new demand for it, the pony might in all
likelihood have come near to extinction.
It was in the middle of last century that ponies were first used in
coal-pits in the north of England,[48] horse ponies over three years
old being imported at the price of £4, 10s. each. Their employment
increased rapidly, until, in the late sixties and early seventies, the
demand became so great that the earlier price was more than quadrupled;
the supply of ponies was practically exhausted; and the Islands were
all but depleted of good stallions; since these only are used in the
pits so as to obviate the inconvenience of working stallions and mares
together. The number now employed is very large, and shows little sign,
so far, of reduction through the increased use of machinery, which
tends to displace rather the larger horses used in the more spacious
main roads than the Shetland ponies which can find their way in the
lower-roofed passages of the pit. There is usually an active demand for
thick, strong colts ready for work, which is not now permitted at less
than four years of age. The Shetland pony—and particularly the pony of
the “Londonderry” type—is admirably adapted for pit work. In structure
he is exactly what is required, massive, muscular, and heavy, and yet
able to walk comfortably in a passage not four feet high. His wise and
placid disposition is no less a recommendation in an animal which is to
work in cramped situations and in surroundings that might overstrain
more excitable nerves than his. The Shetland pony learns easily to
accept and adapt himself to new conditions; he travels with composure
by sea or land; and the introduction of motor-cars into Shetland has
been carried out with much less disturbance to the minds of the equine
than of some of the human inhabitants: no animal could lend itself
better to so strange a service as that of the coal-pits. Mr Brydon
estimates that “it is not overstating the case to say that, on an
average, they will travel over 3000 miles in the course of a year, and
‘shift’ as many tons of coal.”[49]
A considerable sentimental repugnance exists to the employment of
ponies below ground; and to the unaccustomed such a life appears
sufficiently unattractive either to man or horse; but the fact remains
that the life is not on the whole unhealthy: if it lacks the summer sun
it is spared the winter nights. The fable that the ponies become blind
has no better foundation than is given by the fact that a short time
is required to accustom their eyes to the light when they return to
the surface. They are no doubt exposed to accidents; and they are less
protected against overwork and other unfair treatment than they should
be; though this is partly rectified by the provisions of the “Mines
Act” of 1911.
It is only right to say plainly that the general accusation that has
been made of cruel treatment of the ponies in the pits is an entirely
unjust libel upon a class of men who, whatever their failings may
be, are not inhumane. In point of fact, the ponies in the pit are
usually sleek, fat, and contented, and display an affection for their
attendants, and a confidence in man, not easily to be reconciled with
the suggestion that they are habitually maltreated.
[Illustration:
_By permission of the Proprietors of ‘Punch.’_
A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK.]
It must be admitted, nevertheless, that the pit-ponies are the less
fortunate class of Shetlanders, and that the pleasanter career belongs
to those which are selected for what appears to be the natural office
of the pony—that of the child’s first mount. This is no new occupation
for him. A letter, dated 1737, from “Mellerstains” to the writer’s
brother in Bressay, runs: “In several of my letters I have told
you that Lady Binning’s children are from home on account of their
Education, so that a Horse would now be of no use as they’l be grown up
before they settle here again,”[50]—a gift-horse, apparently, somewhat
brusquely declined. Sixty years later a manuscript note, dated 1800,
appended to a copy of Campbell’s ‘Political Survey of Great Britain’
(1774), bears that: “Yoked sometimes to the equipages of the Nobility,
they have attracted the notice of ye metropolis.”[51] We find the
Sheltie, therefore, more than a hundred years ago in favour as a
luxury, and nearly two hundred years ago recognised as a child’s pony.
The pages of ‘Punch’ in the last century bear constant witness to its
popularity for this purpose; and this could hardly be otherwise, for a
child and a Shetland pony are an inevitable combination. Not that the
pony requires so slight a burden; for it is not any ordinary weight of
full-grown humanity, but only length of limb, that prevents the adult
from riding it, as the Dutch seamen used to do in Shetland in spite of
this drawback.[52] But the pony attracts the child as no large horse
can; and it is the ideal mount for early years. Its disposition is
its first and greatest recommendation; for, while of coarse there are
exceptions, generally the Shetland pony is so wise and kind and docile
that it almost teaches the child to ride. Its manageable size and its
admirable nearness to the ground promote the confidence which is the
beginning of equestrian wisdom; and it never shatters or impairs that
confidence by stumbling. This, indeed, is a qualification that is
of capital importance. A pony that falls is of course an impossible
mount for a child; but one that stumbles is scarcely better, since it
constantly suggests the possibility of falling before experience and
practice have neutralised fear. The breadth and strength and balance of
a good Shetland pony make it the surest-footed of all riding animals.
Theorists, without a fact to shelter themselves with, have alleged a
danger to the health of children from sitting astride the big barrel
of the pony, but the answer to them is quite simple. Their fears are
imaginary, for they can produce no justifying instance; and anything
less wide than the Shetland pony—in actual cross-measurement—would,
owing to narrowness of chest, be an unsafe and stumbling mount: so
long as men ride, the Shetland pony will be the most valued and most
valuable possession of the child happy enough to own it. But, to be
the perfect child’s hack or hunter, the Shetland pony must be bred as
a riding-pony: it must have riding action—not the round and hammering
gait of the once fashionable hackney, but the darting, gliding shoulder
action that covers the ground quickly and smoothly. That alone is the
safe and comfortable action of a saddle-horse large or small. Further,
the pony must be bred with a short back and high withers to carry a
saddle. The round low wither that disfigures too many modern ponies
is fatal to the excellence of a saddle-horse, both because it will
not hold a saddle in place and because it goes with short straight
shoulders more proper to the coal-pit than to the road or field.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that a saddle, in the strict sense,
is not necessary or desirable for a child’s first riding. More ease and
comfort—without any risk to the pony’s back—can be obtained by using
the treeless “pilch,” which pads the back and yet gives closer and
safer contact than the saddle.
Trustworthy as the Shetland pony is, it must still be added that not
only must he be educated, mouthed, and mannered as carefully as a
larger horse, but also he should not be subjected to the temptations
of power. Until a child can really manage and control him, the leading
rein must be kept in regular use, so as to avoid those premature
conflicts and accidents that are as fatal to future horsemanship as
they are to equine manners.
[Illustration: ON DUTY.]
The Shetland pony now goes far afield. In the United States he has
enthusiastic supporters, who allow more laxity in height than British
breeders approve—admitting 44 inches as a legitimate stature. He
goes to Australia, New Zealand, the Argentine Republic, and South
Africa, as well as to many European countries. In Canada, at the
moment, he is in great demand: there he is the school pony; for in
the new wheat lands farms are far from the schools, and a pony is the
child’s conveyance. For this purpose a mount is needed which is easily
kept, docile, and hardy, and which can be hitched to a fence during
school hours without being critical of the state of the thermometer.
The Shetland pony supplies the demand, as if he had been created for
that purpose; and Canadian buyers come to Britain year by year to take
ponies in increasing numbers.
The Sheltie has the great advantage of a singular longevity. Every
one who really associates with them knows how disastrously short a
time dogs and horses live: on no reasonable calculation can they grow
old with their owners. Even the Shetland pony fails of this, but he
makes the bravest of attempts. There are many accredited instances of
ponies living to thirty-five years and upwards; while, among Stud-book
ponies, the famous Jack died at the age of thirty, and his son Odin at
twenty-four, while his grandson Thor still lives in health and vigour
at the age of twenty-seven: with a little luck father and son may learn
to ride on the same Sheltie.
The pony is the most easily kept of all animals. For two or three
pounds a-year he can be maintained; for a little more he can be kept in
hard-working condition—a useful member of a small establishment, and no
unprofitable part of the equine staff of a farm, going over much more
ground, with light loads, and a boy to drive him, than a cart-horse
that will cost nearly ten times as much to keep.
Yet in the end it is idle to deny that it is not his indisputable
economic validity that binds the Sheltie’s lovers to him: rather it
is himself—his wisdom and his courage, his companionable ways, his
gay and willing service. Having taken from him their first falls and
first riding lessons, and fought with him their first battles, they
look forward to an old age in which he shall draw their bath-chairs;
and in the interval of life he provides as a field animal the dual
charm of a creature at once wild and tame—wild in his strong instincts,
his hardihood, and his independence,—domestic in his wisdom and sweet
temper, his friendly confidence in mankind, and his subtle powers of
ingratiation.
APPENDIX
The Making of the Shetland Pony
BY
J. COSSAR EWART, M.D., F.R.S.
PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
The Making of the Shetland Pony.
“The horses that are ancient we honour because we know not whence they
came, but the new ones we slight because we know their beginning.”
The Shetland pony belongs to an ancient breed famed for its
intelligence and docility, strength and hardiness, but especially
remarkable because of its small size.
In a recent article on the Shetland pony it is said that “the highest
authorities rather incline to the view that he is an instance of
arrested development, and that all the equine race originally sprang
from ancestors far more diminutive than the smallest Shetland.”
It is doubtless true that the remote ancestors of the Equidæ were
small, but it does not necessarily follow that Shetland, Java, and
other pigmy breeds owe their diminutive size to arrested development. A
human pigmy of West Africa is as well developed as a Hottentot of South
Africa, and a toy terrier is as well developed as a mastiff. There is
hence no _à priori_ reason for assuming that Shetland ponies are not
as well developed—mentally and physically as perfect—as Clydesdales or
Arabs. Moreover, all animals during their development repeat, more or
less, their ancestral history, climb their own ancestral tree, hence if
there is arrested development we should find evidence of reversion to
more or less ancient types. Is there any evidence that in mind or body
the Shetland is an instance of arrested development, or that he owes
his diminutive size to reversion towards remote small ancestors?
It will be well at the outset to ascertain whether the small size
is due to reversion or to dwarfing, induced, partly by unfavourable
surroundings, partly by inbreeding and artificial selection.
_The Size of the Shetland Pony._—Nature unaided has made a pigmy
hippopotamus, pigmy elephants, and pigmy races of man, but there is
no evidence that nature unaided in Europe or Asia in pre-glacial or
post-glacial times produced a wild pigmy race of true horses—_i.e._, of
horses with only one complete toe for each foot.
The smallest wild horses in Britain at the end of the Palæolithic
period (_i.e._, according to a recent estimate some six thousand years
ago) were apparently never under 12 hands at the withers. During the
Bronze age, alike in wild and tame varieties, a size of at least 48
inches seems to have been maintained all over Europe. Further, remains
from Roman military stations indicate that the smallest horses in
Britain during the first century were probably never under 46 inches
at the withers. It may hence be assumed that Shetland and other small
breeds are not directly descended from pigmy wild races, but are the
dwarfed descendants of one or more small varieties or breeds which had
long lived under domestication.
A consideration of pigmy races makes it evident that dwarfing may be
either equal or unequal, that it may result in the formation of a
miniature having all the leading traits of the large race to which it
belongs, or give rise to a pigmy variety in which certain parts are
more dwarfed than others. In some small strains of dogs the relative
proportion of all the parts are practically the same as in large
strains, but sometimes in a small strain not only are the limbs more
dwarfed than the trunk but certain parts of the limbs are more reduced
than others. An example of unequal or disproportional dwarfing we have
in the dachshund. In this breed the dwarfing has been carried further
in the legs than in the body, and in the forearm than in the foot. In a
normally constructed small hound in which the length of the body is 390
mm., the length from the elbow to the ground is 215 mm., from the elbow
to the wrist 145 mm., and from the wrist to the end of the longest
toe 95 mm. But in a typical dachshund with a body of approximately the
same size (390 mm.) the length from the elbow to the ground is only 137
mm., the distance from the elbow to the wrist being 95 mm. and from
the wrist to the end of the longest toe 90 mm.—_i.e._, in a dachshund,
while the foot may only be reduced 5 mm., the reduction in the forearm
may amount to 50 mm. (2 inches).
In the case of pigmy horses are the proportions of their normal
ancestors invariably retained, or are the legs in some cases more
dwarfed than the trunk, and as in the dachshund is the dwarfing greater
in one part of the limb than in another? In Java ponies I have had
under observation for some years the head and limbs bear practically
the same relation to the body as in well-proportioned Arabs.
For example, in a 41-inch Java mare (fig. 1) the height at the withers,
as in typical desert Arabs, is 2·7 times the length of the head,
and the neck and limbs are relatively as long as in Arabs and other
slender-limbed breeds.
But while in tropical islands the relative proportion of the various
parts of pigmy horses may be maintained, in islands near the Arctic
Circle dwarfing may imply undue shortening of the limbs, and that
certain parts of the limb are more reduced than others.
A striking instance of unequal reduction we have in the Udganger or
Nordlands ponies, once common in Bodo, a small island within the Arctic
Circle off the coast of Norway. Fig. 2 shows that the limbs of the Bodo
ponies were relatively nearly as much dwarfed as in a dachshund, while
fig. 3 shows that Iceland ponies of the Nordlands type may closely
agree in conformation with Exmoor and other well-built ponies of the
Celtic race.
Very little is known about the make and size of the horses which
first reached Shetland. The evidence as far as it goes indicates that
they belonged to small varieties measuring from 11 to 12 hands at
the withers. If horses were introduced from Norway during the Norse
occupation, the majority of them would in all probability belong to
the Nordlands race—_i.e._, the race from which the modern fjordhest is
believed to have mainly sprung. Probably unequal dwarfing more or less
pronounced took place at a comparatively early period in some of the
smaller islands, while in the more fertile parts of the main island,
and in the rich island of Fetlar, the reduction in size (as in Java
ponies) would be nearly uniform. It is conceivable that some of the
unimproved ponies now living in Shetland, and also some of the improved
ponies bred and reared far from their ancestral island home, are as
well proportioned as members of the Exmoor or Welsh breeds. One must,
however, be prepared to find that not a few of the inbred pedigree
ponies have undergone unequal dwarfing, one part of the limbs, as in
the dachshund, having undergone more reduction than the adjacent parts.
_Dwarfing in Shetland Ponies of the Celtic or Riding Type._—That
well-proportioned Shetland ponies of the riding or Celtic type still
exist is suggested by the measurements of Pamela and certain other
fine-limbed pedigree ponies. Pamela (40 inches at the withers, 25
inches from elbow to ground, and 5·25 inches below the knee), in the
form and length of the head, length of the limbs and their relation to
the height at the withers, very closely agrees with the 41-inch Java
pony.
The skeletons of Shetland ponies of the riding type available for
study (viz., of Highland Chieftain, Egil, and Eric) also indicate that
in a considerable number of cases the dwarfing is uniform. Though in
many Shetland ponies the distance between the knees and the fetlocks
looks very short, the front cannon-bones may be relatively as long
as in thoroughbred race-horses. In Highland Chieftain[F1] (fig. 4)
the front cannon-bones (metacarpals) are 136 mm. long and 20 mm. wide
at the middle of the shaft; in Persimmon,[F2] the famous thoroughbred
16·2 race-horse (fig. 5), the metacarpals measure 276 mm. by 38 mm. As
Highland Chieftain measured 33 inches, and has cannon-bones measuring
136 mm., he was half the height of Persimmon, and has cannon-bones
practically half the length. In Highland Chieftain the cannon-bones
(fig. 4) are not only relatively as long as in Persimmon (fig. 5), they
bear almost exactly the same relation to the bones of the forearm and
arm as in Persimmon—the _radius_ (chief forearm bone) being relatively
only 8 mm. shorter, the _humerus_ (upper arm bone) relatively only 10
mm. longer. Nevertheless the cannon-bones of Highland Chieftain are
relatively shorter than in typical Celtic ponies. In a 33-inch Shetland
built on Celtic lines the cannon-bones should measure 142 mm., hence
it may be assumed the cannon-bones of Highland Chieftain have been
dwarfed to the extent of 6 mm. or one-quarter of an inch.
[F1] The skeleton of Highland Chieftain (a 33-inch Shetland pony bred
in Scotland) is in the American Museum of Natural History, New York;
Egil’s is in the University of Edinburgh.
[F2] The skeleton of Persimmon is in the British Museum.
The only striking difference between Highland Chieftain and a typical
12-hands Celtic pony is in the face. In modern horses, while the form
of the cranium or brain-box is nearly constant, the face varies both
in size and in its relation to the cranium. In the wild steppe horse
(_Equus przewalskii_) of Mongolia, which during part of the year
subsists on hard dry food, the jaws are so long that the length of
the face (fig. 8) is twice the width across the orbits, thus giving a
frontal index of 50; whereas in a broad-browed Iceland or Highland pony
the face may be only 1·6 times the width, which implies a frontal index
of 60. In the Celtic race (to which Highland Chieftain mainly belongs)
the normal frontal index is 54—_i.e._, the length of the face is 1·8
times the width—but, as in Highland Chieftain, the length of the face
is only 1·5 times the width, the frontal index[F3] is as high as 65.
Further, in Highland Chieftain the profile instead of being convex as
in steppe horses (fig. 8), or nearly straight as in many Exmoor ponies,
was decidedly concave or dished (fig. 4). The difference between the
profile of a Shetland pony and that of a steppe horse is brought out by
figs. 6 and 8.
[F3] The frontal index is obtained by multiplying the greatest width
above the orbits by 100, and dividing the result by the length of the
face, as measured from the alveolar point to a line connecting the
supra-orbital foramina.
In the case of Egil[F4] the dwarfing of the limbs seems to have been
more pronounced. Egil may be regarded as an unimproved 40-inch pony;
he met his death some forty years ago by falling over a cliff near
Hillswick, Shetland—_i.e._, before the Marquis of Londonderry set about
making a short-limbed strain suitable for pit work. A comparison of
the skeleton of Egil with that of an Exmoor pony in the British Museum
shows that in the northern island pony the limbs were relatively
shorter by one inch, and the face by half an inch, than in the southern
moorland pony, but, notwithstanding the shortening of the limbs, the
front cannon-bones in Egil, as in fine-limbed prehistoric races, are in
length seven times the width.
[F4] Egil (a four-year-old black stallion) belonged to Mr Anderson,
Hillswick.
As Egil probably belonged to an unimproved stock, it may be asked,
Does his skeleton lend support to the view that modern pigmy horses
reproduce, apart from their size, the characteristics of their remote
ancestors?
In Miocene, as in prehistoric times, there were light as well as heavy
horses, but in the light as well as in the heavy each limb had three
hoofs (fig. 18). In _Neohipparion_, a late Miocene three-toed horse,
about 40 inches at the withers, the skull is longer by 12 mm., and
the molar teeth are more specialised than in Egil, the 40-inch modern
island pony. In the Equidæ the cannon-bones are especially interesting;
strange as it may appear, the middle cannon-bones are relatively
longer and more slender in the extinct _Neohipparion_ than in modern
race-horses. In Egil the front cannon-bone is 175 mm. (6·75 inches)
long and 25 mm. wide; in _Neohipparion_ the corresponding bone has a
length of 210 mm. (8·25 inches)—is longer than in a 48-inch Exmoor
pony,—and is so slender that the length is nearly nine times the
width—_i.e._, relatively more slender than in desert Arabs. Further,
in _Neohipparion_ the middle metatarsal (hind cannon-bone) is as long
as the femur (thigh-bone), whereas in even the 16·2 hands race-horse
Persimmon (fig. 5) the middle metatarsal is only three-fourths the
length of the femur. But, though in the 40-inch Shetland pony the
skull and the cannon-bones are actually shorter than in the ancient
40-inch Miocene horse (_Neohipparion_), the second and fourth digits
are as rudimentary, are as much “splint” bones, in Egil as in Arabs
and thoroughbreds. There is hence no evidence of reversion in Egil,
no attempt to reproduce the second and fourth toes, which, though
shorter, were as complete in _Neohipparion_ and his three-toed
contemporaries (figs. 19 and 20) as the large functional middle toe,—in
other words, in pigmy horses there is evidence of arrested growth but
not of arrested development. In Egil, as in Highland Chieftain, there
is also evidence of arrested growth in the facial part of the skull;
the profile is concave and the frontal index high (65) as in Highland
Chieftain.
Having seen that, apart from the face, the only essential difference
between the skeleton of an unimproved Shetland and the skeleton of an
Exmoor pony is a difference in size, let us next direct attention to
the skeleton of Eric, a 36·5-inch improved pedigree pony of the riding
type, for some time in the possession of Mr Charles M. Douglas of
Auchlochan. In Eric, who died when six years old, the fore limb from
the elbow to the ground was 22 inches, the length from the point of the
hock to the ground 15·4 inches, the circumference below the knee 5·25
inches, and the width of the fore-shank 1·2 inches. All four ergots
were present, but the hind chestnuts were absent. Though the setting-on
of the tail, the somewhat rounded hindquarters and the presence of
ergots, indicated that Eric, like practically all modern Shelties,
included horses of the “forest” type amongst his ancestors, his skull,
teeth, and limbs made it evident that he mainly belonged to the Celtic
or riding type.
In Eric the face (fig. 6) is so short that the frontal index is 67, the
length being only 1·4 times the width instead of 1·8 as in 12-hands
ponies of the riding type. The length of Eric’s head when alive was 410
mm. (16¼ inches). A typical Celtic pony with a 410 mm. head measures
40 inches at the withers. Eric, though having the head of at least a
40-inch pony, only measured 36·5 inches. It may hence be assumed that,
through dwarfing, his total height was reduced by 3·5 inches.
Further, as Eric’s metacarpal (fig. 9_a_), instead of measuring 166 mm.
(the normal length in a 40-inch pony), had only a length of 143 mm.,
it follows that practically one inch of the dwarfing was due to a
reduction in the length of the cannon-bones. Moreover, as Eric actually
measured 36·5 inches, his metacarpals should have measured 152 mm.
instead of 143 mm.—143 mm. being the length in a normal pony measuring
34 inches at the withers.
Though Eric had the head and trunk of a 40-inch pony and the
metacarpals of a 34-inch pony, the metacarpals bear the same relation
to the radius and the humerus as in Persimmon—_i.e._, in Eric the
relative lengths of the different parts of the limb were maintained
(not lost, as in the dachshund) during the dwarfing process.
Although the cannon-bones in Eric had been considerably reduced in
length, they had not been reduced in width—_i.e._, they are as wide as
the metacarpals of the 40-inch Shetland pony Egil, in which the limbs
closely conform to the Celtic type. It thus appears that, in the case
of ponies, reduction in height at the withers, and especially in the
length below the knee, is not necessarily accompanied by loss of “bone.”
It was at one time the ambition of some breeders to have Shetland
ponies as small as their remote three-toed Miocene ancestors. As a
matter of fact, ponies smaller than some of the Miocene species have
long existed in Shetland. Eric, though an average-sized pony, was
at least a hand smaller than the late Miocene horse, _Protohippus
sejunctus_, in which the front cannon-bones (fig. 9_b_) were 177 mm.
long and 21 mm. wide—_i.e._, 34 mm. (1·37 inches) longer but 5 mm.
narrower than in Eric; while Seedpearl (31·75 inches at the withers)
and other still smaller living ponies have shorter limbs than the very
ancient three-toed _Mesohippus_ from the Badlands of South Dakota. But
while some Shetland ponies are actually smaller and have relatively
decidedly shorter legs than the horses which flourished long before
man appeared on the scene, they never have three toes and their teeth
are always decidedly longer if not more complex than in the most
advanced Miocene species. Hence, as already said, though in Shetland
ponies there is evidence of arrested growth, there is no evidence of
arrested development. It has been pointed out that the facial part
of the skull of Eric is so short that the frontal index is extremely
high—67 instead of 54. Even more remarkable than the shortening of the
face is the reduction in Eric of the capacity of the nasal chambers.
In new-born foals, owing to the relatively large size of the cranium,
the face is always more or less dished (fig. 7). In the case of the
wild horse of Mongolia, the increase in the size of the nasal chambers
soon gets rid of the dishing, and in course of time the nasal bones
are bulged outwards, so as to give rise to a more or less marked
“Roman-nose” (fig. 8). But in Eric and many other Shelties of the
riding or Celtic type, owing to the expansion of the nasal chambers
being prematurely arrested, the profile in the adult (fig. 6) differs
but little from that of the new-born foal (fig. 7).
_Shetland Ponies of the Cart-horse or “Forest” Type._—For want of
material nothing very definite can be said about the nature of the
dwarfing of ponies of the heavy or cart-horse type. In a typical
12-hands Celtic pony the metacarpals are 200 mm. long, 27·5 mm. wide,
but in a typical 12-hands “forest” horse the metacarpals are, on an
average, 193 mm. long and 35·1 mm. wide. An undwarfed, thick-set,
36-inch Sheltie built on the same lines as a 12-hands “forest” horse
should have metacarpals about 145 mm. in length and 26·4 mm. in width,
and should measure 5·5 inches below the knee.
The measurements available indicate that in a pedigree 36-inch Sheltie
of the “forest” type, the front cannon-bones will probably measure
137 mm. by 26·2 mm., that the circumference below the knee will be 5·5
inches, and the distance from the elbow to the ground 21·5 inches—in
Eric (36·5 inches) the length from elbow to the ground was 22·25
inches. If these figures are approximately correct, it follows that in
a 36-inch Sheltie of the cart-horse type the limbs may be at least an
inch shorter than in a dwarfed 36-inch pony of the riding type, and
that the dwarfing may be unaccompanied by any loss of “bone.”
This conclusion is supported by the measurements of Odin, a 38-inch
pony, 6 inches below the knee; of Vulcan, a 32-inch pony, 5 inches
below the knee; and of other ponies of the Londonderry type belonging
to the Ladies Hope, and also by those of Everlasting, Frederick,
and other thick-set Auchlochan ponies. For example, in Everlasting,
a 38-inch pony, the distance from the elbow to the ground is 22·75
inches, the circumference below the knee 5·5 inches, the bone being
“round,” and the shank ·5 inches broader than in the flat-boned riding
pony Eric.
In heavy horses, but especially in Shire colts, one (or more) of the
limbs has occasionally an extra digit ending in a well-formed hoof. In
a three-weeks’ horse embryo there are no rudiments of limbs; at four
weeks the limbs are represented by paddle-like structures; at five
weeks the paddles contain rudiments of three toes—miniatures of the
three toes of _Hypohippus_ (fig. 20).
In ordinary circumstances the development of the outer and inner toes
(ii. and iv.) is soon arrested, but occasionally one of these rudiments
develops into a toe as large and complete as in three-toed Miocene
horses of the “forest” type. When this happens, when in addition to the
third toe there is a toe corresponding to the human forefinger, we have
a marvellous instance of reversion.
If in the Shetland breed there is a tendency to reversion, one would
expect to find now and then extra digits in ponies of the heavy or
“forest” type. I have, however, never heard of a Shetland pony with
extra digits.
Dwarfing of the face and the reduction of the nasal chambers has
apparently been carried further in some of the miniature cart-horses
than in Eric and other flat-boned Shelties. In Jupiter,[F5] _e.g._,
the head, though wider across the orbits, is shorter than in Eric,
and decidedly more dished. Ancient horses adapted for a forest life
had face pits in front of the orbits, which probably, like the
corresponding pits in deer, lodged scent glands. Further, in ancient
“forest” horses the upper lip was probably decidedly longer and more
prehensible than in modern breeds. In broad-browed, big-boned Shetland
ponies there is no indication of a pit for a scent gland, but there is
sometimes an unusually long and decidedly mobile upper lip, which may
or may not be due to reversion.
[F5] Jupiter was a 37·5 inch “elk-nosed” pony, with a girth of 54·5
inches, rounded quarters, a low set-on tail, a complete set of
chestnuts, wide open hoofs, and six inches of “bone.”
_The Causes of the Dwarfing of Shetland Ponies._—Given sufficient food
and shelter, horses up to 15 hands—the size of the tallest prehistoric
Old World wild horse—can easily be bred and reared in both the Western
and Northern Islands of Scotland. On the other hand, large breeds
are soon dwarfed when, in addition to a limited supply of food, the
conditions during a considerable part of the year are extremely
unfavourable. If Shetland ponies have not sprung from a small wild
pigmy race, it may be safely asserted that their small size is mainly
due to isolation in small areas where they were forced to shift for
themselves under, as a rule, extremely unfavourable conditions.[F6]
Obviously the environment may play a double part. It may (1) arrest
growth by failing to provide sufficient food and shelter, and (2)
it may eliminate the individuals which, by growing beyond a certain
size, require during times of stress more food and shelter than are
available. Considerable stress has been laid by writers on the dwarfing
influence of the surroundings. It is said, _e.g._, that “horses taken
to the barren and cold islands of Shetland become gradually smaller
and hardier, like ponies, and the hair becomes thicker and longer.
Long-continued exposure to such conditions ultimately results in
the production of an animal like the Shetland pony, small in size,
extremely hardy, able to withstand the most severe winter climate, and
to subsist on a minimum of food.”[F7] It might be said that this view
is supported by experiments in the Western Islands. At the beginning
of the eighteenth century the Captain of Clanranald (who was killed in
1715 at the battle of Sheriffmuir) brought from Spain “some Spanish
horses which he settled in his principal island of South Uist. These
in a considerable degree altered and improved the horses in that and
the adjacent islands. Even in 1764, not only the form but the cool
fearless temper of the Spanish horse could be discerned in the horses
of that island.... These at that time, both in figure and disposition,
were thought the best horses observed in the Highlands, and though of
low stature were judged more valuable than any other horses of the same
size.” The descendants of the Spanish horses introduced by Clanranald
for a time increased the size of the horses in the adjacent islands.
Nevertheless, in spite of the introduction of the Spanish horses at
the beginning of the eighteenth century, and the introduction of many
south-country horses during the second half of the eighteenth century,
the Highland and Island horses at the beginning of the nineteenth
century were “sometimes only 9 and seldom 12 hands high.” Moreover,
though some of them were “of an excellent form,” with “great strength
in proportion to their size,” agile and spirited, many were “short
necked, chubby headed, and thick and flat at the withers.”[F8]
[F6] That the conditions are now and again very trying in Shetland is
proved by the death-rate among native sheep being, in some districts,
from 40 to 50 per cent. during the winter of 1912-13.
[F7] ‘Cyclopædia of American Agriculture,’ vol. iii. p. 34.
[F8] Walker’s ‘History of the Hebrides,’ vol. ii. 1808.
Evidence in support of the view that the descendants of the Spanish and
south-country horses, introduced about 1710 and after 1745, were soon
either eliminated or dwarfed, we have from Dr Johnson and others. Dr
Johnson tells us that the pony he rode in Coll was very low, and that
a bulky man on one of the native horses made “a very disproportionate
appearance,” and, after referring to the small horses of Rum, mentions
that he had heard of a yet smaller race in Barra, “of which the highest
is not above 36 inches.” Barra was one of the islands which benefited
by the introduction of Spanish horses by Clanranald.
That dwarfing may be the direct result of an inadequate supply of
nourishment during development is suggested by the condition of fœtuses
I found some years ago in a wild rabbit. The right uterine horn of
this rabbit contained four young, the left eight. The eight in the left
horn were as well developed as the four in the right horn, but only
half the size and half the weight. Evidently the amount of nourishment
available in this case was limited, and as the eight in the left horn
only received as much as the four in the right horn, they were only
half the size.
But while dwarfing may be, or appear to be, directly caused by the
environment, there are other possible causes. Sometimes the small size
of one or more members of a family or litter is due to reversion to
small ancestors. For example, in a litter of five puppies bred some
months ago (from parents in which West Highland and Mexican (Spanish?)
blood prevails) there is marked variation in size. When these pups of
mixed origin were weighed three days after birth, two males weighed
7·5 oz. each, two females 5·5 oz. each, and one male 4·5 oz. When
again weighed at the end of the twelfth week, the largest male scaled
106 oz., the smallest male 44 oz., the larger female 58 oz., and the
smaller female 46 oz. In this case the small male reproduced his small
Mexican great-grandsire, while the large males took after their West
Highland ancestors.
But dwarfs often enough turn up in old-established “pure” breeds, and
now and again a dwarf is found in an otherwise normal human family.
There is no reason for supposing that such dwarfs are the result of
reversion. Just as one of a litter of pups may prove a dwarf, one of
five or six foals, full brothers and sisters, may prove a dwarf.
It may, I think, be assumed that in the case of horses living under
natural conditions, “spontaneous variation,” without the aid of
reversion, will, as a rule, provide sufficient material to admit of a
variety being evolved well adapted in size and other respects for the
conditions which at the moment prevail.
It need hardly be pointed out that little will be gained by speculating
as to whether dwarfing is due to the direct influence of the
environment, to reversion, or to spontaneous variation.
Many breeders, more especially breeders of dogs, seem to think that
dwarfing is invariably the result of inbreeding. It is doubtless true
that the members of many recently formed pigmy breeds are closely
inbred, but it is well to bear in mind that there are closely inbred
large as well as closely inbred small breeds—that size is largely a
matter of selection—that in the case of natural races size depends
more on the surroundings and the extent of the range than on the
consanguinity.
The view that dwarfing is caused by inbreeding is insisted on by Sir
Everett Millais in a book on Rational Breeding. Sir Everett states
that, though in the case of the Shetland pony the “climate, bad food,
&c., had been a factor in reducing the size, the primary cause was
inbreeding due to isolation.”
It seems to me, however, highly probable that until artificial
selection began in earnest about thirty years ago, inbreeding had
little influence in determining the size of Shetland ponies—that
isolation had been a decidedly more potent factor than inbreeding.
Scottish red deer are decidedly smaller now than they were in Roman
times; but this is not so much due to inbreeding as to the range of
most of the herds being restricted, and to the best stags being cut
off before they have a chance of improving the herd. The Scottish deer
in New Zealand, though all descended from a few imported individuals,
instead of dwindling in size, are larger and carry finer heads than
their home-bred relatives,—the wider range and better conditions have
more than compensated for the inevitable in-and-in breeding. It is
doubtless true that in-and-in breeding sooner or later diminishes the
vigour, size, and fertility, and, in addition, restricts variation.
But under natural conditions, if the range is sufficiently extensive,
occasional reversion to vigorous ancestors will prevent dwarfing
provided there is rigid elimination of the unfit.
If Shetland ponies are the pigmy descendants of one or more ancient
races at least as tall as Exmoor and Welsh ponies, one would expect
them to increase in size when bred and reared under favourable
conditions. It has been again and again asserted that “the climate and
comparative privation of the Shetland Isles were necessary to maintain
the small stature of the ponies, and that the breed would inevitably
lose this and all other characteristics if bred away from Shetland and
under more generous conditions.”
Some of the ponies recently brought south from Shetland have increased
so much in size that, if otherwise eligible, they could not be
registered in the ‘Shetland Pony Stud-Book’—_i.e._, they are now
over 42 inches at the withers.[F9] The majority of these tall ponies,
however, are piebalds or skewbalds, which in make and other respects
resemble Iceland ponies,—if their history were traced, a piebald
Iceland pony would probably be found amongst their recent ancestors.
It is not surprising that young cross-bred Shetland ponies increase
considerably in size when grazed on rich lowland pastures, or that now
and again a pure-bred pedigree pony should grow above the recognised
standard; but these exceptions only serve to prove the rule, now
widely recognised by breeders, that pure-bred Shetlanders remain small
however favourable their surroundings. Seeing that in the majority of
pedigree ponies the dwarfing has gone so far that the metacarpals are
actually shorter than in the remote three-toed Miocene ancestors, what
is surprising is that there is not an immediate response to the stimuli
which genial surroundings and abundant food imply.
[F9] In all probability these ponies would have measured over 40 inches
had they remained in Shetland.
Some 500 years ago a female rabbit and her young were turned out on
the small island of Porto Santo near Madeira. In course of time this
island was so overrun with rabbits that it was for a time abandoned
as a settlement. As the rabbits increased in number they dwindled in
size, became reddish above and grey beneath, and lost the black marking
from the points of the ears and the tip of the tail. Some of these
Porto Santo rabbits which reached the London Zoological Gardens in 1861
reacquired the colour and markings of the common wild rabbit within
four years. The Porto Santo rabbits having recovered the ancestral
colours soon after reaching Europe, it might have been anticipated that
the Shetland pony would recover some of his lost inches when taken to
the south of England—to the area containing the remains of the 12-to
13-hands wild races from which small British breeds have mainly sprung.
There is, however, no longer any doubt that the small size is, as a
rule, maintained however favourable the surroundings. Why the Sheltie
fails to respond to the growth stimuli which favourable surroundings
so abundantly provide it is extremely difficult to explain. In the
language of the day, one can only say that the limbs have forgotten
how to grow beyond a certain size, and add that this loss of “memory”
may be the result of breeding from the smallest individuals regardless
of their consanguinity. In 1892 Mr Christopher Wilson, in a letter to
Mr Meiklejohn, then in charge of the Bressay Stud, said: “With regard
to the Shetland ponies, your great object is to keep them small....
There is no class of animal to which inbreeding can be better applied,
as all you will lose by inbreeding is size, which is what you want....
To inbreed them there is only one plan. Select your very best stallion
and put him to a certain number of mares, and then put all the good
fillies when three years old to their father; also, select your very
best mare and put her to another stallion, and go on breeding from her
to the same stallion until you have a colt, then put that colt to his
mother, and use the produce to breed from with the produce obtained
by putting the fillies above mentioned to their father.” A better
plan for fixing the size could hardly be imagined. If followed for
some years the size of the bones and muscles would doubtless be so
effectively stereotyped that, however much their “memory” was jogged by
“fresh fields and pastures new,” there would be little or no response.
Although close in-and-in breeding was undoubtedly practised, the
Shetland Pony Stud-Book indicates that the advice of the originator of
the “Sir George” strain of hackney ponies was not literally followed.
_The Ancestors of the Shetland Pony._—From pigmy horses it seems but
a step to the little “fossil” horses of bygone days. It is hence not
surprising that many are led to inquire to which particular branch of
the equine family tree the Shetland pony belongs.
Not many years ago it was said the horse tribe was at the start
represented by a primitive race about the size of a fox but with as
many hoofs as a tapir—four in front and three behind,—that in course
of time a new race arose (with three hoofs in front as well as behind)
which eventually gave rise to the one-toed ancestor of all the living
Equidæ.
Now, however, we know that in Eocene times there were several kinds or
species of four-toed “horses” from which were derived, in the Oligocene
and Miocene periods, numerous three-toed species, some of them doomed
to early extinction, others to bring forth one-toed races which in due
time produced the ancestors of the modern horses, asses, and zebras.
Hence it is now admitted that, in the past as in the present, the horse
tribe was always represented by several species, not a few of which at
times occupied the same area. It is also now admitted that the modern
domestic breeds include several wild prehistoric species among their
ancestors.
Is it possible to say which of the wild horses of prehistoric times
contributed to the making of the Shetland pony? To be in a position
to hazard an answer to this question it will be necessary to refer to
the more important links which are believed to connect modern breeds
with _Hyracotherium_, generally regarded as the remote polydactylous
ancestor of the horse family.
_Hyracotherium_ lived in the south-eastern part of England—his
remains occur in the London Clay near Herne Bay and in the Red Crag
of Suffolk—_i.e._, in deposits formed two or three or it may be six
million years ago. This ancient fossil horse—though not unlike a
long-faced fox terrier—Owen regarded as a relation of the Hyrax or
Coney of Palestine, hence the name _Hyracotherium_. Evolved in Western
Europe—perhaps in England—this primitive small-brained terrier-on-hoofs
not only wandered across Europe and Asia, but actually crossed into
America—then freely connected with north-eastern Asia—and ranged at
least as far south as New Mexico. So conservative was this small
forerunner of the great horse family that the American representative
from the Wasatch deposits only differs from the parent form in having
slightly more complex teeth. The fore and hind foot of the American
variety of _Hyracotherium_—generally known as _Eohippus_—is represented
in fig. 10, and fig. 12 gives a restoration of _Eohippus_.
Though at the beginning of the Eocene period the milk-givers were
backward and small (_Eohippus_ was probably only 12 inches at the
withers), the struggle for existence was probably keen enough. At any
rate, the European varieties of _Hyracotherium_ either died off without
leaving descendants or gave rise to odd-toed ungulates which took no
part in forming the modern Equidæ. But for the American branch of the
_Hyracotherium_ family there would have been no horses. In course of
time _Eohippus_ was supplanted by _Protorohippus_ (a 14-inch horse
longer in the limbs and with more complex teeth), which towards the
close of the Eocene period gave place to the still more specialised
_Orohippus_. It may be mentioned that _Epihippus_, a slightly modified
descendant of _Orohippus_, may have lived side by side with the remote
ancestor of the camels—a quaint even-toed ungulate about the size of a
“jack-rabbit.”
The limbs of _Orohippus_[F10] are represented in fig. 11, and a
restoration is given in fig. 13.
[F10] In the Yale collection there are five species of _Orohippus_ from
New Mexico and Wyoming.
[F11] R. S. Lull, ‘American Journ. of Science.’ 1907.
North America during Eocene times “was clad with forests in which grew
both evergreen and deciduous trees distinctly modern in character.
The moist climate gave rise to many streams and lakes, along the
shores of which grew sedgy meadows that in turn gave rise to grassy
plains.”[F11] In the following (Oligocene) period similar conditions
for a time prevailed, but later, owing to the increasing aridity,
broad meadow-lands and prairies made their appearance. The new
environment produced larger and more active flesh-eaters, fleeter
and more intelligent horses. One of the new and improved species
is _Mesohippus bairdi_, an 18-inch horse with only a splint-like
metacarpal representing the outer or fifth digit—a digit complete in
all the Eocene horses. In this as in all the other Oligocene horses
three of the four premolars, as in the recent Equidæ, resembled molars.
Small and slender-limbed, _Mesohippus bairdi_ was adapted for living
in the open, but a larger species (_Mesohippus intermedius_) might
be described as a “forest” horse,—though only 24 inches high, this
forest-dwelling form had as long cannon-bones as a 33-inch Shetland
pony of the “forest” or cart-horse type. Another American Oligocene
type (_Miohippus_) from Oregon deserves mention, not so much because
it was more specialised, but because it had a representative (probably
a descendant) in Europe known as _Anchitherium_, which in Miocene
times ranged from France to Bavaria. In this European species the last
vestiges of the first and fifth digits had apparently disappeared. The
fore limb of _Mesohippus_ is represented in fig. 18, and a restoration
is given in fig. 14.
It is impossible to say how many thousands of years are represented by
the Eocene and Oligocene deposits, but an idea of the time that has
elapsed since the beginning of the Tertiary period will be gained if
it is mentioned that “when the fox-like _Hyracotherium_ was wandering
on the marshes of Kent not only was the Himalaya non-existent, but
that along the line of its very heart—where the kiang now lives at an
elevation of from thirteen thousand to sixteen thousand feet—extended
an arm of the sea of no inconsiderable depth.”[F12]
[F12] Lydekker, ‘The Horse and its Relations,’ p. 242.
During the Miocene period the horse passed through the most interesting
phases of his evolution, his elaborate dental battery was almost
brought to perfection, and the second and fourth toes were gradually
dwarfed and hidden out of sight, not even a trace of the hoofs being
left, as in sheep, to suggest polydactylous ancestors. As already
hinted, though Europe was the birthplace of the remote ancestor of the
Equidæ, it is in the Miocene deposits of North America that we have a
record of the most important phases of their evolution. The remarkable
progress made in Miocene times was doubtless necessary to enable horses
and other grass-eaters to keep abreast of the profound changes in the
environment—the great increase of prairies in some areas, and the
upheavals which resulted in the appearance of extensive mountain ranges
in others.
The Oligocene species which proved sufficiently plastic to respond to
the new conditions varied in different directions, and gave rise to,
amongst other types, one well adapted for a forest life, and one highly
specialised for ranging far and wide over boundless prairies.
In _Hypohippus_ we have an example of a “forest” horse, in the American
_Hipparion_ (_Neohipparion_) we have a horse more specialised for a
desert life than the fleetest Arab, while in _Merychippus_ we have
a link with Oligocene species deserving attention, because, on the
one hand, it gave rise through _Neohipparion_ to the _Hipparions_,
now extinct, but once common in Europe and Asia; and because, on the
other hand, through _Protohippus_ it seems to be the ancestor of the
slender-limbed species of the “desert” or plateau type, now best
represented by Celtic and Mexican ponies.
In _Merychippus_ the orbit is complete, and the crowns of the permanent
molars are cemented as in recent horses, but the hoof bone has a cleft
at the apex (fig. 19), and in some cases there is a minute vestige of
the “splint” bone of the fifth or outer digit of the fore-foot. In fig.
11_a_, the fore-foot of _Neohipparion_, the Miocene race-horse, is
represented. Fig. 19 gives the fore-foot, and fig. 16 is a restoration
of _Merychippus_.
Hitherto _Merychippus_, through _Protohippus_ and _Pliohippus_, has
been by many regarded as the progenitor of all the modern horses, as
well as of the extinct _Hipparions_. That slender-limbed horses with
short-pillared molars are mainly descended from one or more varieties
of _Merychippus_ is possible, but it seems to me that modern breeds
with short broad cannon-bones and long-pillared molars are probably
mainly descended from browsing ancestors with limbs of the _Hypohippus_
type.
_Hypohippus_, like _Eohippus_, but unlike all the known Oligocene
horses, had in the fore limb, in addition to three complete and
functional toes, a distinct vestige of the first metacarpal—_i.e._,
of the bone which in man carries the thumb. No vestige of a first
metacarpal has ever been found in slender-limbed breeds, but once
and again a vestige of the first metacarpal occurs in coarse-limbed
breeds. The vestigial first metacarpal, taken along with other
facts, suggests, as already said, that coarse-limbed breeds include
a browsing race with limbs of the _Hypohippus_ type amongst their
ancestors. A few years ago it was assumed that _Hypohippus_, the
40-inch forest horse of Dakota and Montana, became “extinct during
the Miocene, leaving no descendants.”[F13] Now, however, it is admitted
that browsing horses possibly “identical with _Hypohippus_ of the
Miocene of America”[F14] lived in China at the beginning of the
Pliocene. Though it is inconceivable that a species with the
short-crowned teeth of _Hypohippus_ could give rise to any of our
modern breeds, it is possible that in the Pliocene of Eastern Asia
a race (with _Hypohippus_-like limbs but long-crowned molars) may be
found bearing the same relation to long, low, big-boned modern
“forest” horses that _Merychippus_ bears to fine-boned modern
plateau or desert horses.
[F13] Lull, _loc. cit._, p. 177.
[F14] Osborn, ‘Age of Mammals,’ p. 333.
The fore-foot of _Hypohippus_ is represented in fig. 20. When a toe
corresponding to the second digit of _Hypohippus_ (II. fig. 20) appears
in a modern horse it has sometimes, as in _Hypohippus_ and _Eohippus_
(I. fig. 10), a vestige of the first metacarpal at its upper. Fig. 15
is a restoration of _Hypohippus_.
_Ponies in Prehistoric Times._—During the Pleistocene period some eight
or more species of true horses and ponies inhabited North America.
Apparently before Palæolithic man reached the New World all these
American species had become extinct. About the American true horses
which, like _Hipparion_, reached and found a home in Eastern Asia,
very little is known. Some of their descendants found their way during
Pliocene times into India; others reached south-eastern Europe.
One of the Indian Pleistocene species (_E. namadicus_) from the
Narbada valley had large long-pillared molars like _E. complicatus_
of North America and _E. fossilis_ of England (fig. 22); another (_E.
sivalensis_), well represented in Pliocene deposits of the Indian
Siwaliks, is the oldest true horse about which we have definite
information. Like _Pliohippus_, _E. sivalensis_ had short-pillared
molars, but instead of measuring, like _Pliohippus_, 12 hands at the
withers, this Indian species reached, in some cases, a height of 15
hands.
Some of the Kirghiz breeds, in which the face is strongly bent
downwards on the cranium, probably include this ancient Siwalik race
amongst their ancestors. Some of the Eastern races which reached
Europe[F15] in pre-glacial times found a congenial home in Tuscany and
Umbria. Others, moving in a north-western direction, found their way
into Britain, while others crossed by one or more land connections into
North Africa. About the late Pleistocene descendants of the varieties
and species which reached Europe before the Ice Age, a considerable
amount of information has been gained from engravings and coloured
drawings on the walls of caves occupied by Palæolithic man, and from
fragments of skulls, teeth, and limb-bones found in Pleistocene
deposits. Up to the end of last century naturalists, as a rule, assumed
that the wild horses hunted during the Early Stone Age all belonged to
the same species, the so-called (_E. fossilis_), and when about 1870
Prjevalsky discovered wild horses in Mongolia, it was further assumed
that these wild herds were the descendants of _E. fossilis_, and hence
represented the wild species from which all the modern domesticated
breeds had sprung.
[F15] The horses which reached Europe in Pliocene times are usually said
to belong to one species (_E. stenonis_).
Partly from fossil teeth and limb-bones, and partly from the engravings
on the walls of caves and on pieces of horn, the conclusion was
arrived at that _E. fossilis_, the assumed common ancestor of modern
breeds, was characterised by a large coarse head, coarse limbs,
and long-pillared molars (fig. 22). Prjevalsky’s horse when first
discovered was said to be characterised by coarse limbs as well as by a
large heavy head. As it was further assumed a generation ago that all
domestic horses had long-pillared molars, and that the cannon-bones
varied with the surroundings—being short and broad in some areas, long
and narrow in others—there seemed no escape from the conclusion that
all the horses now living under domestication are descended from one
and the same wild Pleistocene ancestor.
But though in Prjevalsky’s horse the head is coarse, the limbs are
nearly as fine as in thoroughbred race-horses, and though in horses of
the Prjevalsky or steppe type the pillars of the molars are long, they
are not long in all modern horses. Moreover, though there is evidence
of the existence in Europe in prehistoric times of a species with a
coarse head and relatively fine cannon-bones, there is no evidence of
the existence of a species which combined a coarse head with short
broad cannon-bones. On the other hand, it has been ascertained that
since Miocene times there have been living side by side in Europe
big-boned and fine-boned species, and that, except by dwarfing, long
narrow cannon-bones are rarely if ever transformed into short, broad
cannon-bones.
The skulls from the Roman military station at Newstead proved
conclusively that there lived in Scotland during the first century
large and small horses with _short-pillared_ molars (fig. 23). This led
to the discovery that in Shetland and other ponies of the Celtic type,
and in Arabs and thoroughbreds of the Libyan or Siwalik type, some of
the molars have as short pillars as in _E. stenonis_ (fig. 21) of the
Val d’Arno Pliocene deposits.
The investigations of the last decade having indicated that during
the Ice Age in Europe, as in America, there were always several
species of horses living contemporaneously, an attempt must be made to
ascertain from which of the wild prehistoric species Shetland ponies
are mainly descended. In addition to steppe horses of the Prjevalsky
make and horses allied in skull, teeth, and limbs to _E. sivalensis_
of India, there were in prehistoric times large and small varieties
of browsing or forest horses, and “Celtic” and “Libyan” varieties of
slender-limbed plateau or desert horses. Although trees and plateaus
are conspicuous by their absence in the northern islands, the study
of Shetland ponies makes it evident that they have mainly sprung from
“forest” and “plateau” ancestors. Evidence of this we have in the
limbs and skull as well as in the teeth. A fairly accurate estimate of
the type to which a horse belongs, and also of its height, can often
be gained from a study of the cannon-bones. For example, in 12-hands
ponies of the “Celtic” variety the metacarpals are on an average 200
mm. long and 26·6 mm. wide at the middle of the shaft, whereas in
12-hands ponies of the “forest” type the length is on an average 193
mm. and the width 35 mm.—_i.e._, in the one case the length is 7·5
times the width, in the other only 5·5 times. In Preglacial times there
were horses in Umbria with metacarpals 190 mm. by 32 mm., and horses
with metacarpals 220 mm. by 30 mm. The 190 mm. metacarpals probably
belonged to a long, low, broad-browed 12-hands “forest” pony, while
the 220 mm. metacarpals doubtless belonged to a 13-hands fine-limbed
pony of the “desert” type. During the Glacial period horses of the
“forest” and “desert” as well as of the “steppe” type were common
all over Europe.[F16] From the “Elephant-Bed” at Brighton bones of a
12-hands “forest” horse have been recovered. Kent’s Cavern, Torquay,
in addition to the bones of a 12-hands “forest” horse, has produced
cannon-bones of the same size and width as the fine-boned 13-hands
Umbrian pony.
[F16] In the vicinity of an open-air settlement to the north of Lyons
there are rubbish-heaps said to contain the remains of over 50,000
horses, which served as food during the Solutrian period of the Stone
Age.
The “Elephant-Bed” and Kent’s Cavern small “forest” horses are best
represented to-day by the long, low, broad-browed Iceland ponies, while
the 13-hands small fine-boned race of Kent’s Cavern is best represented
by Exmoor and other ponies of the “Celtic” type—_i.e._, by ponies with
short-pillared molars, and only two of the eight callosities (chestnuts
and ergots) invariably found on typical “forest” horses. Whether modern
Shetland ponies are mainly descended from prehistoric British races
or from a Norse race of the fjord type it is impossible to say. The
Magdalenians, who occupied Kent’s Cavern while hunting the reindeer
in the south of England towards the close of the Old Stone Age, had
no domestic animals. Neither had their successors, the Azilians, who
some 8000 years ago frequented the MacArthur and other caves near Oban.
The Mediterranean race (now best represented by the Basques), which
followed in the wake of the Azilians, perhaps brought sheep or cattle
into Britain, but there is no evidence that they possessed horses.
Professor Ridgeway believes “the use of the horse by man in the British
Islands cannot be placed before the end of the Bronze or the beginning
of the Iron Age.”[F17]
[F17] ‘Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse,’ p. 92.
Through the courtesy of Sir William Turner I recently had the
opportunity of examining some horse, sheep, and dog bones found near
Grangemouth 30 feet below the surface, at the point where the Carron
joins the Forth. Two imperfect horse skulls belonged to ponies of the
“forest” type, which probably measured 12 hands at the withers, a
broken sheep skull belonged to a member of the peat or turbary race,
and a dog skull differed but little from that of a modern greyhound.
Taking into consideration the position and nature of the deposit, one
may provisionally assume that the bones belong to animals which lived
in the Forth valley about the end of the Neolithic Age,—the dog and
sheep undoubtedly lived under domestication, but whether the horses
were tame or wild is uncertain.
The next horse bones from Scotch deposits available for study consisted
of the skulls and limb-bones from Newstead, already referred to.
Several of the horses in the possession of the Roman auxiliaries who
garrisoned the Border Fort in the first century were over 15 hands, and
had the face bent downwards on the cranium as in Kirghiz horses,—in one
case the deflection is so great that the hard palate forms an angle of
nearly 20’ with the cranium (in the forest horse the face is in a line
with the cranium). In one of the bent skulls the molars have as short
pillars as in _E. stenonis_ (fig. 21) of the Italian Pliocene.[F18]
Two of the Newstead skulls belong to ponies about 12 hands high, one
to a pony, Arab-like in make, with metacarpals measuring 214 mm. by
28·8 mm.—_i.e._, to a fine-boned pony about 13 hands at the withers.
The skull and teeth of the 12-hands ponies indicate that one was about
two-thirds “forest,” the other two-thirds “Celtic”; the teeth as well
as the skull and cannon-bones of the 13-hands pony indicate that it
was nearly a pure member of the Celtic or Libyan race. According to
Dio Cassius, the Caledonians “went to war on chariots as their horses
were small and fleet.” The two 12-hands Newstead ponies were probable
members of the race which the Caledonians, Mætæ, and other tribes
of northern Britain yoked to their war chariots. It is conceivable
that soon after the Roman period ponies were taken from the mainland
of Scotland to both the Western and Northern Islands. That ponies,
resembling in make and size the small Newstead horses, reached Shetland
some centuries before the northern islands fell into the hands of
the Norsemen, is suggested by a broken pelvic bone belonging to a
pony between 11 and 12 hands, found in 1911 at the Jarlshoff broch,
Sumburgh, by Mr Charles M. Douglas. During the autumn of 1912, by
permission of Mrs Bruce of Sumburgh, and with the help of Mr Bennet
Clark, I examined a number of old hearths at Jarlshoff, probably formed
about the same time as the deposit in which Mr Douglas found the
broken pelvic bone.
[F18] Until the Newstead skulls were found it was believed horses with
short-pillared teeth became extinct thousands of years ago.
The bones of the Celtic shorthorn and of turbary sheep, the presence
of hammer-stones, pieces of pottery and scrapers, of limpet and other
shells, together with the bones and implements collected during the
excavations by the late Mr John Bruce of Sumburgh, support Mr Douglas’s
view that horses reached Shetland some centuries before the turbulent
Norse jarls, harassed by Harold Fairhair, began to settle in the
Northern and Western Islands of Scotland.
It may hence be assumed that Shetland ponies are mainly descended from
the “small and fleet” race yoked to the chariots of the Caledonians
at the battle of Mons Graupius. This ancient race (which was probably
brought to Britain during the late Celtic period) was probably
originally a blend of the slender-limbed, Arab-like ponies of the Swiss
Lake-dwellers and of a thick-set race of the Elephant-Bed type. That
the Shetland blend is an old one is suggested by the account Herodotus
gives of the horses belonging to a tribe on the north of the Danube.
This tribe (the Sigynnæ), Herodotus says, “had horses with shaggy hair,
five fingers long, all over their bodies, and which were small and
flat-nosed, and incapable of carrying men,[F19] but when yoked under a
chariot were very swift, in consequence of which the natives drove in
chariots.” Judging by this description, the chief difference between
typical modern Shelties and the small horses of Central Europe in the
time of Herodotus is a difference of size.
[F19] Herodotus probably means these small horses were incapable of
carrying men into battle.
[Illustration: PLATE I.
Fig. 1.—A 41-inch Java pony. Many East Indian ponies are said to be
saturated with Arab blood. In the Java mare figured the head and limbs
bear nearly the same relation to the trunk as in small desert Arabs.
Fig. 2.—A Norwegian Udganger pony in which the legs are relatively
nearly as short as in the dachshund. From a specimen in the Bergen
Museum.
Fig. 3.—A 42-inch pony of the Udganger type from Iceland, in which the
head and legs bear nearly the same relation to the trunk as in Exmoor
ponies. This pony is characterised by a fine head, large eyes, and
small ears; by fine limbs, sloping shoulders, and a short back; and by
the absence of the hind chestnuts and all four ergots.]
[Illustration: PLATE I.
Fig. 1. A 41-INCH JAVA PONY.
Fig. 2. A DWARFED UDGANGER PONY, NORWAY.
Fig. 3. A 42-INCH ICELAND PONY, UDGANGER TYPE.]
[Illustration: PLATE II.
Fig. 4.—Skeleton of a 33-inch Shetland pony (Highland Chieftain) in
the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Though the front
cannon-bone is 1·5 inches shorter than in the three-toed Miocene horse
_Protohippus_, it has only been dwarfed about one-quarter of an inch.
From a photograph lent by Prof. H. Fairfield Osborn.
Fig. 5.—Skeleton of Persimmon, a 66-inch race-horse belonging to
the late King Edward VII. The bones of the limbs of Persimmon bear
practically the same relation to each other and to the trunk as in
Highland Chieftain, but in Persimmon the skull is relatively shorter
and the withers are relatively higher.]
[Illustration: PLATE II.
Fig. 4.—Skeleton of Highland Chieftain, a 33-inch Shetland Pony.
Fig. 5.—Skeleton of Persimmon, a 66-inch Thoroughbred.]
[Illustration: PLATE III.
Fig. 6.—Side view of skull of Eric, a 36·5-inch Shetland pony of the
riding type.
Fig. 7.—Skull of a new-born foal of the Celtic or riding type.
Fig. 8.—Skull of a four-year-old Prjevalsky horse from Mongolia. In the
foal the cranium is relatively large and the face decidedly dished;
in the Sheltie the face is longer than in the foal, but less bent
downwards on the cranium and less dished; in the Prjevalsky stallion
the cranium is less globular, while the face is very long and, owing
to the bulging outwards of the nasals, “Roman-nosed.” Though in some
Shetland ponies the face is long, the wild horse now found in Mongolia
seems to have contributed little to the making of the modern Sheltie.
DIMENSIONS OF SKULLS.
Total Facial Frontal Frontal
length. length. width. index.
mm. mm. mm.
Prjevalsky, 518 371 187 50
Eric, 383 252 170 67
Foal at birth, 255 166 100 60
Iceland pony, “forest” type, 506 336 228 61
Pony, “Celtic” type, 494 338 185 54]
[Illustration: PLATE III.
Fig. 6.—Skull of Eric, a 36·5-inch Shetland Pony.
Fig. 7.—Skull of a new-born foal, Celtic type.
Fig. 8.—Skull of a wild Prjevalsky horse, from Mongolia.]
[Illustration: PLATE IV.
Fig. 9_a_. Middle metacarpal (front cannon-bone) of Eric, a 36·5-inch
Shetland pony; length, 143 mm. (5·6 inches), width at middle of shaft,
26 mm. In Eric the reduction or dwarfing of the front cannon-bones is
estimated at 1 inch. Half nat. size.
Fig. 9_b_. Middle metacarpal of the Miocene 3-toed (36-inch?) horse
_Protohippus sejunctus_; length, 177 mm. (6·9 inches), width, 21
mm.—_i.e._, 1·3 inches longer than in Eric. Half nat. size.
Fig. 9_c_. Middle metacarpal of _Hypohippus_, the (40-inch?) Miocene
3-toed “forest” horse of Montana and South Dakota; length, 215 mm. (8·4
inches), width, 22 mm.—_i.e._, 2·8 inches longer than in Eric. Half
nat. size.
Fig. 10. Bones of fore and hind foot (half nat. size) of _Eohippus_
(fig. 12). After Marsh.
Fig. 11. Bones of fore and hind foot (half nat. size) of _Orohippus_
(fig. 13). After Marsh.
Fig. 11_a_. Bones of the three front toes (II., III., and IV.) of
_Neohipparion_, the 10-hands American Miocene desert horse with
deer-like limbs. In this ancient race-horse the II. and IV. toes are
very much shorter than in _Hypohippus_ (fig. 20), a late Miocene
“forest” horse.
Fig. 11_b_. Engraving of a small-headed horse made during the Early
Stone Age in the Combarelles Cave, France. The short face, small ear,
and flowing mane suggest a race to which Shelties may be related.
One-fourth nat. size.]
[Illustration: PLATE IV.
Cannon-bones, half nat. size.
Fig. 9_a_.
Eric.
Fig. 9_b_.
_Protohippus._
Fig. 9_c_.
_Hypohippus._
Fig. 10.—Fore and hind foot, _Eohippus_, ½ nat. size.
Fig. 11.—Fore and hind foot, _Orohippus_, ½ nat. size.
Fig. 11_a_.
Forefoot, _Neohipparion_, ¼ nat. size.
Fig. 11_b_.—Engraving of a small-headed horse.]
[Illustration: PLATE V.
Fig. 12.—Restoration of _Eohippus_, the American _Hyracotherium_, size
about 12 inches. See fig. 10.
Fig. 13.—_Orohippus_, a late Eocene four-toed horse, size about 16
inches. See fig. 11.
Fig. 14.—_Mesohippus_, an Oligocene horse about 24 inches. In some of
the three-toed Oligocene horses the cannon-bones were as long as in a
32-inch Shetland pony. See fig 18.
Fig. 15.—_Hypohippus_, a three-toed Miocene “forest” horse, with
the II. and IV. toes long and functional. In 40-inch specimens of
_Hypohippus_ the cannon-bones were 2·5 inches longer than in some
40-inch Shetland ponies. See figs. 9 and 20.
Fig. 16.—_Merychippus_, a 9-hands three-toed Miocene horse.
_Protohippus_ (a possible ancestor of modern fine-limbed breeds) and
the extinct _Hipparions_ seem to have been derived from _Merychippus_.
Fig. 17.—A 33-inch Shetland pony. In modern Shelties the legs are
relatively shorter than in the three-toed horses of the later Miocene
deposits. Shetland ponies have probably partly sprung from ancestors
allied to _Merychippus_ and partly from ancestors with limbs of the
_Hypohippus_ type.
Figs. 12 to 16 after Osborn and Lull.]
[Illustration: PLATE V.
Fig. 16.—_Merychippus_, 36 inches.
Fig. 12.—_Eohippus_, 12 inches.
Fig. 15.—_Hypohippus_, 40 inches.
Fig. 14.—_Mesohippus_, 24 inches.
Fig. 13.—_Orohippus_, 16 inches.
Fig. 17.—Shetland, 33 inches.
All the figures one-thirtieth nat. size.]
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
Fig. 18.—Skeleton of fore-foot of _Mesohippus_. The II., III., and IV.
digits are complete, the V. is represented by the upper end of the
metacarpal. Oligocene of America. After Marsh.
Fig. 19.—Forefoot of _Merychippus_ (or _Protohippus_). Digits II. and
IV. shorter than in fig. 18, and the vestige of digit V. very small or
absent. American Miocene. After specimen in American Museum of Natural
History.
Fig. 20.—Forefoot of _Hypohippus_, the Miocene “forest” horse. Digits
II. and IV. long as in _Mesohippus_, digits I. and IV. represented by
small “splints” not seen in figure. After specimen in American Museum
of Natural History.
Fig. 21.—Upper molar, _E. stenonis_, natural size. The internal pillar
(p) is only one-third the length of the grinding surface of the crown.
Pliocene. After Boule.
Fig. 22.—Upper molar, _E. fossilis_, natural size. The internal pillar
(p) is more than half the length of the grinding surface of crown.
Pleistocene. Kent’s Cavern, Devonshire. After Owen.
Fig. 23.—Premolar and molars (natural size) of a small mediæval? horse
from Aberdour, Aberdeenshire. The internal pillars are short. Small
horses with short-pillared teeth have lived in Europe since the end
of the Pliocene. In the 36·5-inch Shetland pony Eric the molars very
closely agree with those figured. From specimens received from Prof.
Arthur Thomson, Aberdeen.
Fig. 24.—Premolar and molars of a small horse from the Roman Fort,
Newstead. The pillars are long, as in _E. robustus_ of Solutrè and
other small Pleistocene horses of Europe; as in the 11-hands _E. tau_
of the Mexican Pleistocene; and as in Shetland ponies of the “forest”
or Londonderry type.]
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
Fig. 21.
Fig. 22.
Fig. 23.
Fig. 24.
Fig. 18.
_Mesohippus._
Fig. 19.
_Merychippus._
Fig. 20.
_Hypohippus._]
NOTES.
1 Quoted in R. Holinshed, ‘The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of
England, Scotland, and Ireland,’ 1577. Description of Scotland, pp. 21,
22; confirmed by R. Colt Hoare, ‘History of Ancient Wiltshire,’ Roman
Era, 1812, vol. ii. p. 11.
2 Quoted by C. Hamilton Smith, ‘The Naturalist’s Library,’ 1873, vol.
xii. p. 120. But the author does not indicate to which St Austin he
refers, nor does he give any clue to the quotation, which we have been
unable to verify.
3 ‘A Compendious History of the Goths, Swedes, and Vandals and other
Northern Nations,’ written by Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala and
Metropolitan of Sweden, Eng. trans., 1658, Book II., p. 28.
4 Olaus Magnus, _loc. cit._, Book XXIII., p. 174.
5 Gervase Markham, ‘Cavalarice or the English Horseman,’ 1607, Book I.,
p. 16.
6 G. Vigfüsson and F. York Powell, ‘Corpus Poeticum Boreale,’ 1883. W.
Wagner, ‘Asgard and the Gods,’ trans. M. W. Macdowall, 2nd ed., 1882.
7 R. Tudor, ‘The Orkneys and Shetlands,’ 1883, pp. 46, 47.
8 ‘Orkneyinga Saga,’ trans. J. A. Hjaltalin and G. Goudie, 1873, p. 150.
9 Paz Salas, ‘La Felicisima Armada,’ Lisbon, 1588.
10 ‘Certeine Advertisements out of Ireland,’ 1588. Collected tracts on
the Armada, British Museum.
11 W. Sheardown, ‘Doncaster Races, Historical Notices,’ &c., 1861, vol.
ii. p. 3.
12 J. Cossar Ewart, “The Multiple Origin of Horses and Ponies;”
‘Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society,’ 1904.
13 W. Ridgeway, ‘The Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse,’
1905.
14 Ubaldini, ‘Descrittioni del Regno di Scotia,’ 1568, Eng. trans.,
1829, p. 63; Edinburgh Bannatyne Club.
15 “Descriptio Insularum Orchadiarum per me Jo Ben, ibidem coletem in
Anno 1529.” Macfarlane’s ‘Geographical Collection,’ 1908, vol. iii.
p. 304; Scottish History Society.
16 “Oppressions of the 16th Century in the Islands of Orkney and
Shetland, from original Documents;” Maitland Club Miscellany, 1859, p.
68.
17 Matthew Mackaile, “Short relation of the most considerable things in
Orkney,” 1614; G. Barry, ‘History of Orkney,’ 1808, vol. xi. p. 456.
18 “Acts and Statutes of the Lawting Sheriff and Justice Courts of
Orkney and Zetland,” 1617; Maitland Club Miscellany, 1840, p. 69.
19 _Ibid._, p. 69.
20 “A Description of the Islands of Shetland, &c., by Captain John
Smith, who was imployed there by the Earle of Pembrock in the year
1633, and stayed a whole Twelve Month there;” Scottish History Society,
1908, p. 65.
21 ‘A General Geographical Description of Zetland,’ by Hugh Leigh,
minister of the Gospel in Brassie and Burs, through John Marr; no
date—probable c. 1670; Scottish History Society, 1908, p. 250.
22 Thomas Kirke, ‘An account of a Tour in Scotland,’ 1677; edited by P.
Hume Brown, 1842, p. 32.
23 J. Wallace, ‘A Description of the Isles of Orkney,’ 1693, ed. 1883,
p. 16.
24 J. Brand, ‘A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland Firth,
and Caithness;’ Edinburgh, 1701, pp. 77-79. Brand was one of the
ministers sent as a commission in 1700 by the General Assembly “to
visit and order the Churches there.”
25 ‘A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland.’ To which is
added ‘A Brief Description of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland,’ by Wm.
Martin, Gent, 1703, p. 377. Martin’s statement is perilously like a
copy of Brand’s, but he certainly did visit Shetland.
26 ‘Shetland Pony Stud-Book,’ vol. i. p. xl.
27 _E.g._, T. Gifford, ‘Historical Description of Zetland,’ 1733, pp.
22, 23, 26, 98. D. Edmonstone, ‘A View of the Ancient and Present State
of the Zetland Isles,’ Edinburgh, 1809, vol. i. p. 226; vol. ii. p.
206. G. Sinclair, ‘A General View of the Agriculture of the Central
Highlands of Scotland’ (Shetland Isles), 1794, p. 247.
28 ‘An Exact and Authentic Account of the greatest White Herring
Fishery in Scotland, carried on yearly in the Island of Zetland by
the Dutch only.’ To which is prefixed ‘A Description of the Island
by a Gentleman who resided Five Years on the Island,’ London, 1750.
Tracts on Orkney and Shetland, 1750-1801, p. 8; Library of Society of
Antiquaries of Scotland.
29 “Observations on the Islands of Shetland,” 1801; Highland Society of
Scotland’s publications, vol. ii. p. 7.
30 T. Gifford, ‘Historical Description of the Zetland Islands,’ 1733,
ed. 1879, p. 22.
31 Highland Society Report, _loc. cit._
32 ‘Statistical Account of Shetland,’ 1841, Section “Unst,” by John
and James Ingram, p. 45.
33 ‘The Rider and Driver’: New York, December 1899.
34 James Mill’s Diary, 1740-1803, ed. 1889; Scottish History Society,
vol. v. p. 86.
35 H. H. Dixon (“The Druid”), ‘Field and Fern,’ 1865, pp. 29, 30.
36 H. H. Dixon, _loc. cit._, pp. 12-15.
37 H. H. Dixon, _loc. cit._, p. 12.
38 James Fea, ‘Considerations on the Fisheries in the Scotch Islands,’
1787, p. 86.
39 A. Edmonstone, _loc. cit._, vol. ii. p. 42.
40 S. Hibbert, ‘A Description of the Shetland Islands’ (date?), ed.
1891, p. 157.
41 S. Hibbert, _loc. cit._, pp. 179, 180.
42 R. Cowie, ‘Shetland and its Inhabitants,’ ed. 1874, p. 181.
43 Gifford, _loc. cit._, pp. 76, 77.
44 H. H. Dixon, _loc. cit._, p. 37.
45 Cowie, _loc. cit._, p. 191.
46 ‘Encyclopædia of Agriculture,’ edited by Green and Young, p. 497;
Article on Strangles.
47 _Ibid._, p. 189; Article on Parasites.
48 See Mr Brydon’s admirable Introductory Article in the ‘Shetland Pony
Stud-Book,’ vol. i. pp. xxxvii-xli.
49 _Ibid._
50 Sheriff and Stewart Court Books of Zetland, 1749, at Lerwick.
51 In A. Z.’s collection of documents relating to Shetland, in the
Library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
52 R. Tudor, ‘The Orkneys and Shetland,’ 1883, p. 125, a quotation from
Campbell’s ‘Great White Fishery,’ 2nd ed., 1753.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.
Transcriber’s Notes
The changes are as follows:
Page 3—Heards changed to Herds.
Page 4—ROCK DRAWING changed to ROCK-DRAWING.
Page 5—present day changed to present-day.
Page 55—pony-breeders changed to pony breeders.
Page 63—pit pony changed to pit-pony.
Page 104—they’l changed to they’ll.
Page 104—Proprietors of Punch. changed to Proprietors of ‘Punch.’
Page 124—one quarter changed to one-quarter.