BLOOD OF MAEES. 437 



the almost total neglect of the pedigree of dams, which are those 

 most necessary to be preserved ; since a known stallion's pedi- 

 gree is always at once traceable ; while to say that a certain mare 

 is by Eclipse out of a Fox mare, or a Cub mare, or any other 

 mare, is to say nothing. Since, for aught proved by that show- 

 ing, the Fox or Cub mare in question, might have been the 

 daughter of a Flander's Cart mare, or a Cleveland Bay hunter 

 of the old school, and of course, utterly worthless as a dam of 

 racers. 



And yet such was to so great a degree the received mode of 

 entering blood mares, on their first importations, that in few of 

 the most celebrated early importations, even of the most unde- 

 niable blood mares, and dams of our most distinguished winners, 

 can their pedigrees be established beyond the possibility of a 

 dispute. 



Such is the case of Col. Delancey's Cub mare, of the Pot- 

 8os mare, dam of Miller's Damsel, and grand dam of American 

 Eclipse, and of many others, which are yet beyond the possibil- 

 ity of a doubt, pure thoroughbreds ; having so shown them- 

 selves by the transmission of their qualities, through many gene- 

 rations of racers and the sires and dams of racers ; a thing im- 

 possible for chance horses. 



Much irretrievable confusion has arisen, doubtless, from 

 names having been given, after their importation hither, to colts 

 and fillies unnamed in the Stud Books ; and yet more from the 

 multiplication of the same names, those names being identical 

 with the world-famous title of some English sire. 



For an example of this there are not less than three imported 

 Eclipses, one of which, Harris's, is not doubted to be a full- 

 blooded liorse, a racer and getter of racers in a high form, whose 

 blood still bears repute in Yirginia ; and not one of the three 

 distinctly referable to any colt, on which one can lay his finger 

 in the Stud Book. 



In the same way, there appear to have been two Travellers, 

 Moreton's and Strange's, both imported ; and both of these 

 have been referred to two or more dififerent animals, and both 

 trace, as a matter of course, to Greyhound, Makeless, Brimmer, 

 White Turk, Dodsworth, Layton Barb mare. 



Still it is probable, I should rather say certain^ that this, in 



