206 FLORIDA. 



required for calling into active force the essential Bellfonnder ele- 

 ments.; but in the dam of Florida, a da\ighter of this same Volunteer, 

 were found still more nearly the essential conditions requisite to call 

 into action the nerve force, temperament, physical and mental charac- 

 teristics of the Bellfounder horse, as we have nowhere else seen them 

 since the days of the original and greatly admired Norfolk trotter. I 

 have seen in Kentucky a two-year-old — the Cromwell filly — by 

 Almout, the grandam of which was by Bellfounder Jr., a son of the 

 Ohio Bellfounder, that displayed in living colors the genuine Bell- 

 founder t}'pe, as shown in a gait that will some day call to mind, 

 memories of the old Norfolk trotter, and at the same time will shine 

 out with an original brilliancy in a new constellation that has appeared 

 in the galaxy since his star went beneath- the horizon. To an eye 

 that has learned to revel in the excellence of this most lovelv of 

 trotting gaits, it is no rare sio-ht to witness an exact and faithful exhi- 

 bition of it at the rate of 2:40, in a two-year-old filly. Marvelous 

 indeed must have been the high qualities of that sire that could, in 

 his daughter, Goldsmith Maid, exhibit the purity and elastic richness 

 of the finer Abdallah gait, and in his granddaughter, through the 

 interposition of a remote cross, reproduce the genuine Bellfounder 

 gait in all its nervous richness, and exhibiting a poise of body, and a 

 steady, quick, and almost flying stroke, scarcely seen since the days 

 of the great original. But such are the mysterious phantasies of this 

 breeding business, that the rich veins of pure gold, long concealed by 

 processes that we do not understand, suddenly come out in strata 

 "where least expected. 



When I first saw Florida, during the month of January, l876, I 

 found him, at first sight, to be the plain and unassuming horse that I 

 have described. By the term plain, however, I do not mean coarse, 

 or lacking in good form. He was simply good all over, but unpreten- 

 tious. He was plainly without fault, except that, for his breeding, I 

 thought him rather light in his hindquarter; but a close measurement 

 satisfied me that this appearance was deceptive. He has a good sized 

 hock, and flat hind legs, and the largest knees and best forearm I 

 have found anywhere. He is good-natured and quiet, and shows no 

 signs of ill temper. He was unshod, andj from appearances, I should 

 Bay had been so for a month or two, running loose in a small enclosure 

 ■ attached to his stable, going out and in at pleasure. He showed no 

 trace of extra care or high keeping. His owner offered to have him 

 Bhod, and show me his gait on my return the day following. I did 



