526 THE MORGANS. 



easy to find a possible source of trotting- blood wliich would have 

 compensated for any deficiency in the original Morgan family. Some 

 such there must have been, as it is an absolute certainty that a sire with 

 no more true trotting blood than Justin Morgan or Woodbury, his son, 

 could never have transmitted to the son of such a mare as the dam 

 of Golddust, trotting qualities so marked and impressive as have been 

 exhibited by this stallion. 



The indications in the anatomy and the manner of going of the 

 Golddust family indicate so very clearly to my mind the possible 

 orio-in of their trotting blood in a Duroc- Messenger, that I have been 

 strongly inclined to the belief that the dam of Vermont Morgan or of 

 Barnard Morgan may have been a daughter of Cock of the Rock, 

 whose stay in Vergennes, Addison county, Vt., from 1820 to 1829, left 

 so majiy mares in that State whose blood and trotting qualities enter 

 into so large a list of the Morgans and other roadster stallions of that 

 State as to render it an easy task to solve the mystery, if there be 

 any mystery, in the trotting instinct and cajDacity of the Golddust 

 family. 



The blood of Bishop's Hambletonian is scarcely found in the 

 Morgans as frequently as that of Cock of the Rock. A daughter 

 of the latter was the dam of Morgan Cock of the Rock, another was 

 dam of Blackhawk Champion, another was dam of Lone Star, and 

 another was dam of Robin — all Morgan stallions, and still another was 

 dam of the Wiley Colt, also called Vermont Morgan, a horse which has 

 by many been confounded with this other Vermont Morgan, the 

 sire of Golddust. Mr. Murray, Ur. Harvey, and many of the current 

 journals of the country, credit Golddust to this Wiley Colt, but in this 

 they are in error. His sire was the son of Barnard Morgan, son of Gif- 

 ford, as I have already stated ; but the Golddust family, in their confor- 

 mation and way of going, su]i]ily evidence which indicates to my mind 

 their undovibted origin in one of these daughters of Cock of the Rock. 

 Their trait is nothina^ like that of the Vermont Hambletonian s. Phil 

 Sheridan, son of Creeper, a Morgan horse, was from a grey mare of 

 that Vermont Messenger blood, and in his gait he very closely 

 resembles the stallions Cuyler and Joe Brown ; but the Golddusts and 

 some of the produce of Blackhawk Champion, which I have seen, trot 

 as though they came from one family, not, however, like the Black- 

 ha%Yks. Their gait has more stifle, and more of the so-called hock- 

 action, a more powerful display in the stifles and rear projiellers; and 

 after a close study of several members of the family, all displaying 



