144 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



but those in the lower jaw show themselves first, and 

 commonly at the age of three, or three and a half. 



The marJc, as it is called, is a little cavity of a 

 dark colour, and about the size of a small grain of 

 oats, visible on the surface of the middling and cor- 

 ner teeth, and in a minor degree on the gatherers. 

 It becomes filled up, making the surface even at four 

 years in the gatherers, at five in the middling teeth, 

 and at seven in the corner teeth ; after seven the age 

 cannot be known by this criterion ; but it should be 

 noticed that though the age in running horses has 

 hitherto been usually dated from the 1st of May, 

 there is so much variation in the time of foaling as 

 to make it impracticable to speak with certainty to a 

 few months more or less. A late foal, when four 

 years of age in sporting calculation, will not show 

 his four-year-old teeth till August or September, and 

 of course will sometimes pass for a three-year-old in 

 the spring, though, properly speaking, he ought to 

 be dated a year older. By a recent resolution of the 

 Jockey Club, blood-stock is now dated from the 1st 

 of January, and of course this will lead to the general 

 adoption of the same rule in all stock. 



After a horse is far advanced in his eighth year, 



