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422   THE HORSE OP ANAU IN ITS VARIOUS RELATIONS.

Major's index of the position of the facets the horse of Anau ranks very close to Equus stenonis and the horse of Solutré. In the following table I give again the mean values of this dimension for the different horses :

Anau   26.o Stenonis, after Major   32.5

Przewalski   27.0 Solutré    33.1

Asinus, after Major   28.9 Cardamone   34.0

Siberian horse, Tscherski ... 32.0

In the neck of the astragalus the horses of Anau and of the Bohemian localities resemble throughout Equus stenonis and the recent horse. Kowalewski says that the cuboidal facet of the astragalus (which in the tridactyl ancestors of the horse was useful in transferring the weight of the body to the metatarsus externus) is very small in Hipparion and the horses and stands too steep to support the cuboideum. Moreover, Major has shown that it is still less steep in the horses than in Hipparion, but he admits that in Equus stenonis it is steeper in some specimens than in others. Among the Anau specimens small differences of this kind can be observed, showing that this characteristic is in a preeminent degree dependent on the individual use of the limbs.

Naviculare tarsi.—From Anau we have two specimens which were not considered in the earlier chapter. For comparison, I have only those of Equus przewalskii and of a recent domestic horse. In the Anau horse, the indentation in the posterior edge of the naviculare (first mentioned by Kowalewski and of which he finds the first trace in Paleotherium medium) is uncommonly pronounced and deep, giving the tarsus great strength. In comparing this part of the naviculare with that in Equus przewalskii we see that this indentation is here more round and hollowed out and not provided with so sharp-edged a notch as in the Anau horse. I find in the horses of Solutré and Kesslerloch the same condition as in Equus przewalskii.

We know that the posterior edge of the astragalus joint is occupied by two projections which border this indentation. In Equus caballus the outer one usually projects strongly and is, as already stated by Rütimeyer (p. II), much more strongly developed than in Hipparion. In the Anau horse the outer one projects the more; but in contrast with Equus przewalskii and the horse of Solutré, both of the Anau specimens show it connected in an almost straight line with the inner projection, and not separated by a deep notch as in those horses. Thus Equus pumpellii is, in this respect, very similar to Equus stenonis, in which the outer projections are described by Major as equal.

The articulating surfaces for the cuneiforme I and II, which in Equus cabal-lus recens are much enlarged transversely, while in Hipparion and Equus stenonis the fore-and-aft diameter predominates, show in Equus pumpellii and przewalskii the same relation as in Equus stenonis.

The articulating surfaces for the cuboideum : As Major observes, the center of gravity in the tarsus has been steadily moved forward from geological to recent time, hence the posterior articulating surfaces diminish in size and the anterior surfaces increase. The posterior one of the two existing articulating surfaces is, especially in Hipparion, much extended from above down and stands here almost