When the Book of Mormon was published, in 1830, it was generally believed that the horses introduced by the Spanish were the only ones ever known to America, but it has since been proved that they appeared on the western continent ages ago, and further, that they had disappeared, or nearly so, at the time of the discovery by Columbus. The exact date of their extinction is not known. Their remains are found in the most recent geological formations. They continued here after the introduction of man, and how much longer is problematical. Professor W. D. Matthew of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, considers it quite probable that they were destroyed by the early hunters. He implies that a few of them may have lived down to the time of Columbus:

All of these horses became extinct both in North and South America. Why, we do not know. It may have been that they were unable to stand the cold of the winters, probably longer continued and much more severe during the Ice Age than now. It is very probable that man — the early tribes of prehistoric hunters — played a large part in extinguishing the race. The competition with the bison and the antelope, which had recently migrated to America, may have made it more difficult than formerly for the American horse to get a living. Or, finally, some unknown disease or prolonged season of drought may have exterminated the race. Whatever the cause, the horse had disappeared from the New World when the white man invaded it {unless a few individuals still lingered on the of south America), and in his place the bison had come and spread over the prairies of the North." (Supplement to American Museum Journal, Second Edition, May, 1905.) remote plains.

The Book of Mormon announced to the world that horses were known in America many centuries before Christ. Science has subsequently traced their existence still farther back. Neither of these sources discloses the date of their disappearance. One of the Nephite prophets incidentally mentions them as late as the third decade of the Christian era (III Nephi 6: 1), and now one of our foremost scientists thinks it not impossible that some may have lingered on as late as the fifteenth century.