A "HIT"— SOUNDNESS OF PARENTS. 107 



vals existj tlie hit cannot be said to depend upon the reunion, since 

 this must occur in all cases ; and what is common to all cannot be 

 instanced as a particular cause of any subsequent result. 



The fact really is, as proved by thousands of examples, that 

 by putting A and B together, the produce is not necessarily made 

 up of half of each. Both parents have qualities belonging to the 

 several members of a long line of ancestors, and their son (or 

 daughter) may possibly be made up of as many as seven propor- 

 tions of one parent, and one proportion of the other. It generally 

 happens, that if there is any considerable degree of consanguinity, 

 or even a great resemblance in form, to some of the ancestry on 

 each side, the produce will draw together those elements, and will 

 be made up of the characteristics pecuHar to them in a very large 

 proportion. This accounts for the preponderance of the Touch- 

 stone form in the West Australian stock ; while the same horse is 

 overpowered in Orlando and his stock, by the greater infusion of 

 Selim blood in the dam Vulture, who is removed exactly in the 

 same degree as Touchstone from Selim and his brother Castrel; 

 and the two latter, therefore, have more influence on the stock than 

 the former. Here, then, we have two remarkable instances, which 

 each show a hit from the reunion of strains after two out-crosses ; 

 while, at the same time, they severally display an example of two 

 lines overpoweriog one in the stock of the same horse. It may be 

 argued, that in each case it is the blood of the dam which has 

 overpowered that of the sire, — West Australian being by Mel- 

 bourne, out of a daughter of Touchstone; while Orlando is by 

 Touchstone, out of a mare descended from two lines of Selim and 

 his brother Castrel. Now, I am myself a great believer in the in- 

 fluence of the dam over her progeny, and therefore I should be 

 ready to accept this argument, were it not that, under ordinary 

 circumstances, both Melbourne and Touchstone have been sure to 

 reproduce their likenesses in their several sons and daughters. 

 Every racing man who has been on the turf while the Melbournes 

 and Touchstones were in their glory, was able, in almost all in- 

 stances, to say at the first glance, " That is a Melbourne or a Touch- 

 stone colt or filly." But, in the cases of Orlando and West Aus- 

 tralian, the resemblance to their respective sires was not apparent; 

 and, as I before observed, it is still less visible in their stock. In 

 the language of the stud, this is called "going back" to a particular 

 strain; and it is so constantly observable, that there is no necessity 

 for dwelling further upon it. 



IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH AND SOUNDNESS IN BOTH SIRE 

 AND DAM. 



Our present breed of horses is undoubtedly less healthy 

 than that of our ancestors ; and this tendency to unsoundness is 



