528 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. • 



disabling it, when pure, from producing hunters of the 

 very highest attainable excellence. 



If such horses as Sir Archy and his great son, Timoleon, 

 or Black Maria, had been trained for the hunting-field, they 

 could have carried a rider six feet two inches, weighing two 

 hundred and twenty-five pounds, a distance in advance of 

 any field of hunting-bred horses ever mounted. Or, take 

 such an animal as American Eclipse, or Revenue, or Planet, 

 for riders, say from five feet ten inches to six feet, and from 

 one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty pounds; 

 or, fancy old Ariel, the fairy queen of the running-turf, 

 carrying a high-spirited lady rider. We may fancy a high- 

 bred maiden, in the first bloom of her beauty, riding through 

 a dashing chase at the head of a gallant field of hunters. 

 Cold runs the blood in his veins whose whole being does 

 not dilate with the thought. I admit that my own heart 

 bounds with the conception. 



I confess that I have, for some years, felt that there must 

 be some sustaining demand to back up the breed of race- 

 horses, outside of the current demand for fast mile-horses 

 for the gambling needs of the racing-turf. Are the great 

 old four-milers, along with the great race of men who pro- 

 duced them, gone without return ? I have an opinion that 

 a horse may be produced, phenomenally fast for a mile 

 and phenomenally unfit for every useful common purpose, 

 whether he be trotted or run. If the breed of race-horses 

 deteriorates, everything lower in the scale of horse-flesh will 

 correspondingly go down. Does anyone believe that any 

 fountain of excellence can be led higher and maintained at 

 a level above its source \ Believe it not ! 



If Fox-hunting be established as our national sport, 

 there will arise a demand for hunting-horses, for ladies and 

 gentlemen, which can not at first be met. It will of course 

 ultimately be met. No demand can be made upon the cre- 

 ative genius of the American people which can not be met 

 in due time. In the earlier stages of that demand, the 

 breeders who have the knowledge, the skill, and the means 

 combined to produce first-class hunters, for ladies and gen- 



