FLUSHED. 341 



interfered, and, by a little judicious management, suc- 

 ceeded in quieting the excitement and restoring peace. 

 At our suggestion (and expense) the crowd again 

 "lickered," and then repaired to the race-ground. But 

 if we were surprised at the preliminaries, we were 

 astonished when we arrived at the ground and sur- 

 veyed the track, or rather the tracks. I will try and 

 describe them, and sporting men can take items if they 

 choose. There was no quarter of a mile in the country 

 level enough to make a track, so they commenced 

 upon the top of a small hill, descended that, ascended 

 and descended another, and terminated in the hollow. 

 Thus, on account of the intervening hill, persons at 

 one end of the track could not see what was transpir- 

 ing at the other. Two spaces, each about two feet 

 wide, had been cleaned the whole length of the tracks ; 

 and in order to obtain a good bottom, these tracks had 

 been dug down below the surface of the earth, so that 

 the horses were to run in trenches, or ditches, — in- 

 tended, I suppose, to keep them from flying the track. 

 These two trenches, or ditches, were about ten or 

 twelve feet from each other ; and as the undergrowth 

 had not been cleared out of the intervening space, 

 and there grew thick and heavy, only occasional 

 glimpses could be obtained by the rider upon one track 

 of any one upon the other. This fact Tom and I 

 demonstrated to our own satisfaction by riding over 

 the tracks, but the tracks were not the only objects 

 of interest. An observer of human nature might have 

 passed days in that crowd, and each minute of every 

 day might have discovered some new, and to him 

 astonishing, trait to wonder at and admire. About a 

 hundred, or a hundred and fifty persons, of all ageb 

 and sexes, had collected to witness the race, and as 



