172 SOLDIER AND SPORTSMAN 



distance in 2 min. ^^ 4-5 sec, a wonderful per- 

 formance. In 1900 Caiman did a mile in i min. 

 ^;i 1-5 sec, and three horses in 1903 did five 

 furlongs in 56 2-5 sec None of the eighteenth- 

 century cracks could touch these figures, and it is 

 safe to say the great Eclipse himself never ap- 

 proached them, though it is unfortunately the fact 

 that we have Colonel Andrew O' Kelly's word for 

 it that he was never timed. 



" If greater pace is the one thing we want, why 

 have we not yet discovered the exact points of 

 structure which seem likely to produce it, and done 

 our best to breed them ? The answer is twofold ; 

 it is first, because no standard system of bone- 

 measurement has yet been accepted ; and second, 

 because we are still almost completely ignorant of 

 what the results of any union will be. Even when 

 a particular sire and dam produce a particularly 

 successful winner, that winner's own brother may 

 be worthless, and has several times been proved 

 to be so. Age, therefore, and climate, and many 

 subtle natural causes, seem to enter into this obscure 

 calculation. We cannot even say exactly what we 

 mean when we speak of an offspring (AB) being a 

 'blend' between two parents (A) and (B). Is the 

 resultant AB composed of half A and half of B ? 

 If so, is it a chemical or a mechanical mixture.'* Is 

 it only the visible qualities of A and B which 



