14 THE HORSE. 



It has been shown above, at page 99 of vol. i, that in the tenth 

 cross, a horse has but one one-thousand-and-twenty-fourth part 

 of the blood of either of his progenitors. In the sixteenth gener- 

 ation, therefore, he could have but one sixty-six-thousand-nine- 

 hundred-and-seventy-sixth part of the blood of either ; in other 

 words, that is to say — supposing Bustler to be the son of a cart- 

 mare, which is incredible, not to say impossible — of coarse, cold 

 blood. 



So also, in the pedigree of Eclipse, fifteen full generations 

 are accomplished in the foals of the present year, since the un- 

 known mare, who was the most remote progenitrix of Spiletta, 

 the mother of Eclipse, was stinted to Brimnier. 



Kow, on the other hand, supposing the dam or sire, in the 

 eighth degree of remoteness, of any animal, to be of Flemish, or 

 Cleveland Bay, or Suffolk Punch, unimproved blood, the animal 

 in question would have one two-hundred-and-lifty-sixth-part of 

 that base blood ; and in every successive generation, nearer to 

 the strain, the proportion of baSe blood will be doubled ; until 

 where the sire is thoroughbred, and the dam wholly coarse- 

 blooded, the mixture will be half and half. 



To those, who have not made this subject of the crossing of 

 bloods their especial study, it will appear incredible that the 

 two-hundred-and-fifty-sixth part in the blood of an animal should 

 tell to his detriment ; to those who have done so, it is a certain 

 ftict ; and one might fnlly as well argue with such persons against 

 the efficiency of blood at all, as question the deterioration con- 

 sequent on such a strain. 



One more observation, and I pass to the consideration to 

 which these remarks are preliminary, as to the other distinct 

 bloods or breeds, among horses, which are to be found, improved 

 or unimproved in America. 



That observation is — that the probable reason for the adop- 

 tion of the eighth generation, as that Avhich should debar an 

 animal from running as not thoroughbred, is the idea that 

 after such lapse of time no difference was discoverable in the 

 performances of animals tracing directly to Barb or Arab horse, 

 and Barb or Arab mare, and of animals whose parentage was, 

 on one side or the other, dark. And this reason would have 



