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PREHISTORIC HORSE IN AMERICA.


_To the Editor of the Scientific American_:

Apropos to Professor Cope's remarks before the A.A.A.S. at Washington,
reported in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, September 12, inclose sketch of a
mounted man, whether on a horse or some other mammal, is a question
open to criticism.

[Illustration: Height, 43 in.; length, 63 in. San Rafiel del Sur, 1878
Drawn for and forwarded to Peabody Museum--No. 53.]

The figure seems incomplete--whether a cloven foot or toes were
intended, cannot say.

A large fossil horse was exhumed in the marsh north of Granada, when
ditching in 1863. Then Lake Managua's outlet at Fipitapa ceased its
usual supply of water to Lake Nicaragua. When notified of the
discovery the spot was under water. Only one of the very large teeth
was given to me, which was forwarded to Prof. Baird, of
Smithsonian--Private No. 34.

When Lake Nicaragua was an ocean inlet, its track extended to foot