OBSCUEITY OF PEDIGKEES. 159 



ary days, any more than I undervalue or doubt the pedigree or 

 merits of the great forefathers of the English Turf, in the days 

 of Queen Anne, and of the first monarchs of the House of 

 Hanover. 



Much, in fact, as I regard the fame of Buck- Hunter, 

 Spanker, Childers, Cartouch, Bald Charlotte, Matchem, and a 

 hundred others one might name, do I esteem that of the Fear- 

 nought, Janus, Celer, Tryall, Yorick, Traveller, and the mares 

 Seliraa, Kitty Fisher, Jenny Cameron, Jenny Dismal, and many 

 others, of American immortality. Tlie pedigrees of many of 

 them run into the obscurity of time, and one must write down, 

 at last, unknown, for either dam or sire, as is the case with 

 more than one of the admitted great English progenitors. 



For instance — the sire of Eockwood is unknown ; the dams • 

 of Coneyskins, Clumsy, Gray Grantham, and Whynot — the 

 grand-dams of Bay Bolton, Snake, Jigg, and a score of others, 

 from whom it is held glory enough to be descended, are all un- 

 hnown ; but not, for that, are they to be held of impure or cold 

 blood. 



In like sort, I hold it indisputable that the dams of many of 

 the noblest and most perfect — and, to judge from all analogy, 

 the most pure-blooded — of the progenitors and progenitrixes of 

 the American Turf, are unknown. The dain of Tasker's Selima 

 is, I hold it, unknown ; for of three dams assigned to her, I can- 

 not find that she has any claim to one. Snap-dragon by Snap, 

 out of whom she is said to have been got, was not foaled until 

 her sire, Godolphin, was dead. The large Hartley mare, to 

 whom that capital turf-writer. Observer, assigns her, as sister to 

 Babrakcmi, had, according to the stud-book, no chestnut filly 

 by Godolphin, nor any, that answers to the date of Selima, of 

 any color. And the Fox mare, whose dam was by Childers, 

 and who was herself dam to "Weasel and Daphne by Godolphin, 

 had no other foals to that horse, nor any foal earlier than 

 1750-51, in which year Selima is said to have been imported. 

 Tliis last is Skinner's pedigree of this famous mare. Tlie dam 

 of Jenny Cameron is not stated. The dam of Kitty Fisher is 

 said to have been out of Bald Charlotte, by the Cullen Arabian, 

 but there is no show of proof that this thrice famous mare ever 

 bore a filly to that Arab. And again, the dam of Jenny Dismal 



