uth to the ground. Even with this extended neck the
giraffe's legs are so exceedingly long that he is obliged to spread
his front feet when he wishes to reach the ground with his head. The
elephant has pursued exactly the reverse plan. Using his tremendous
head as a battering ram in fighting, and using his enormous tusks both
in battle and in uprooting young trees, a lengthened neck is
absolutely out of the question. Furthermore his front teeth have grown
so prodigiously that they would interfere with his getting his mouth
to water. Accordingly, his nose has lengthened its tip until it
reaches the level of his feet, and this nose becomes to him the main
organ of grasp and of touch. To drink, its end is inserted in the pool
and water is drawn up the nostril. If the animal were to attempt to
draw it all the way back into his throat, it would inevitably strangle
him by getting into his windpipe. Accordingly, when the nose is well
filled with water, the tip of it is inserted in his mouth, and the
water discharged by a quick puff. The horse has taken a method
intermediate between these. It had moderately lengthened both neck and
head in order to get to the ground with its nipping teeth, and thus to
gather the grasses which serve as its principal food.

The mammalian teeth, while of four kinds, really in most animals serve
but two purposes. The front teeth consist of the incisors and canines,
and are used for biting. The hind teeth, consisting of premolars and
molars, are used for grinding. In the horse, the jaw has lengthened
between these two sets, carrying the biting teeth far forward of the
molars. It is this gap in the row of the horse's teeth which makes it
possible for us to insert the bit into his mouth.

Now comes a strange accident into the life of our American horse.
Creatures of the same kin had been evolving in Europe and Africa, but
the developments are more distinctly horselike, it would seem, in our
own country. Then for some reason the horse disappeared completely
from American soil. Doubtless two things happened. First of all, some
of them migrated across a stretch of open country which then connected
America with Asia in the neighborhood of Bering Strait. These
creatures spread first over Asia and then over Africa and Europe,
leaving their skeletons scattered over this enormous stretch of
country. Asses and zebras are still found abundantly and widely
scattered, but the wild horse of to-day is seen only in