VAKIOUS RACES. HI 



qualities by hereditary descent, may be held to prove the pos- 

 session of pure blood in the sire. The pedigree of American 

 Eclipse cannot be absolutely proved — that is to say, there is a 

 doubt in his pedigree, but no proof of a stain in his blood — yet 

 no one in his senses, looking to his own performances and the 

 performances of his get, can doubt his being as thoroughbred as 

 his English namesake, to whom he is supposed to have been 

 connected on the mother's side. 



It is evident then, in the first place, that the original stock 

 of the unimproved American horse is the result of a mixture 

 of breeds, the French, the Spanish, the Flemish, and the Eng- 

 lish horses having all sent their representatives to some portion 

 or other of the United States and British Provinces, and proba- 

 bly still prevailing to a considerable degree in some locations, 

 though nowhere wholly unmixed, while, in others, they have 

 been so thoroughly mixed and amalgamated, that their identity 

 is no longer discoverable. 



In 'New York, it appears that the early importations of 

 thorough blood, and the constant support of horse-racing, have 

 so changed the original Dutch or Flemish stock, that the char- 

 acteristic of her horses is that of the English race, with a strong 

 cross of good blood. In Massachusetts, Yermont, and the 

 Eastern States generally, the Cleveland Bay, and a cross be- 

 tween that and the English dray-horse blood, with some small 

 admixture of a thorough strain, j)i"edominates. In Pennsyl- 

 vania, the most distinct breed appears to be of Flemish and 

 English dray-horse origin. In Maryland, Yirginia, and South 

 Carolina, English thorough blood prevails to a great extent ; so 

 much so as to render the inferior classes of working horses 

 weed}^ and undersized. In Louisiana, and many of the Western 

 States, French and Spanish blood is prevalent in part, though 

 with a mixture of an English strain. But, generally, it may be 

 assumed that, with the exception of the thoroughbreds, there is 

 scarcely any breed in any part of America entirely pure and 

 unmixed, and that there are very few animals any where which 

 have not some mixture, greater or less, of the hot blood of the 

 desert, transmitted through the English race-horse. 



In fact, with the exception of ihe Conestoga horse, there is 

 in the United States no purely bred draft or cart-horse, nor any 



