COWS. 17 



something of accident, after all, oftentimes in the 

 happiest results of the breeder's art. It is, after all, 

 like mining, or the story of the chancellor's first 

 brief. Others, as he, had diligently sat in chambers 

 long enough, abstaining even from a run down on the 

 Derby day ; others had driven their levels quite di- 

 rectly into the bowels of the dark soil ; but, as in the 

 case of the silver treasures of Potosi, or O'Connell's 

 success in the celebrated salmon weir trial, it was an 

 Indian's tearing up a sapling by the roots in his effort 

 to save himself from falling, that revealed the shining 

 store : it was a stranger's handing an explanatory 

 note across the table that solved the point of legal 

 dispute ; so may nearly all the most precious crosses 

 in the annals of bovine, as blood stock, claim a tinge 

 of accidental influence beyond the fondest anticipa- 

 tion of the breeder. 



Let it not be imagined for a moment that I would 

 suggest the withdrawal of his due credit from [any 

 one who has exhibited to the admiring public gaze a 

 Queen of the May, a Blink Bonny, a Royal Butterfly, 

 a Chester Emperor, or a Crown Prince ; I would 

 merely remark that there is something therein of 

 good-luck crowning a well calculated combination, 

 which, after all, every industrious intelligent breeder 

 may sustain himself in dark moments with the 

 hopes of, but which none can rely on with certainty. 



Granted, however, that these Koh-i-noors, so to 

 speak, are in a measure the result of a happy acci- 

 dent, beyond disputation is it notwithstanding that 

 success in a highly profitable degree will ensue upon 

 the union of well-selected partners, suitable in style, 



