200 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



thinking of Mr. Day or of Bedouins, but have, never- 

 theless, given strong support to the practical wisdom 

 of the Bedouins in determining to keep their breed 

 pure, and not to have it soiled by the impure blood, 

 always existent, if frequently latent, in the English 

 thoroughbred. 



It was after writing the above observations on Mr. 

 Day's reference to the dodo that I was favoured 

 by Mr. C. B. Fisher with the perusal of Captain 

 Upton's book, ' Newmarket and Arabia : An Exam- 

 ination of the Descent of Racers and Coursers.' 

 He was a Captain (afterwards a Major) in the 

 9th Royal Lancers, and therefore presumably knew 

 something about a horse, and in all probability 

 knew better than Mr. Day, as to what sort of 

 animal to breed for military and general purposes. 

 He asks pertinently enough, as to an argument 

 such as Mr. Day's dodo absurdity, whether it had 

 never struck breeders that the natural speed of 

 the pure Arabian might have been increased to 

 even a greater degree than that now exhibited 

 by his half-bred descendant, if Arabian blood 

 had been bred from alone for a few generations ? 

 Whether it had been proved that Arabians have 

 not as high a rate of speed ? Whether we have 

 procured young stock, and by careful training ascer- 

 tained their capabilities ? And then he asserts that 

 until all this, and more, has been tried, no one can 

 say that the Arabian is inferior in speed, and that to 

 say so is an unfounded assertion. Then he gives a 



