Shinar, or from those of Nimrod, that mighty hunter, the great grandson of the first navigator, "the bold man of great strength of hand, who stayed and tyrannised in Babylonia," down to the present day, the Arab has been bred under circumstances well. calculated to arrest his growth, and to inure him to long days of continuous toil, semi-starvation, and thirst. For a few months, possibly, he may enjoy the pastures of the Maharaina, of Esdraelon, or some watered plain in "Araby the blest"; but for many more he has to subsist on scant feed, such as a Basuto pony alone could thrive upon. "Never let an animal lose its sucking flesh," is an axiom with our breeders, who are careful to keep their colts and fillies in growing condition. The Arab foal, on the contrary, endures great privations, has to follow its dam on many a forced march, and must pick up a living as it can, aided only by a little camel's milk when this can be spared. Delightful as is Mesopotamia and the crisp clear air of the desert in the spring, during the protracted summer it is a foundry furnace, the almost perpendicular rays of the sun shooting down upon the brain and spinal columin as though concentrated in the focus of a burning-glass. The air is charged with particles of fine sand, scorching as from the blast of an oven; the parched ground radiates fervent heat. Climatic extremes, free from humidity, however—for the winter, at night especially, is bitterly cold-and oft the scantiest of scant fare, are conditions calculated to produce a hardy, terse little horse, all wire and whipcord; but certainly are not likely to rear that massive animal so eagerly sought after in this country, and which, for downright hard work, away from his oats and old meadow hay, is so useless out of it-especially under a tropical sun.

Till very lately the Arabian has been out of favour with our people. With us size covers a multitude of evils, and anything not over 15h. 2in., no matter how big of bone and large of frame, is termed a "little horse." little horse." But now, thanks to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Mr. Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt, the Honourable Miss Dillon, and others afflicted with "the Arab craze," increased attention is being directed to this Eastern horse, whose descendants are now found to be distinguishing themselves pre-eminently on all the racecourses of the world, not excluding the trotting tracks of America; and whose blood (no matter in what channel directed or with what plebeian puddle mingled) has ever brought improvement in some shape or other; but mainly in respect of quality, stamina, courage, nervous energy, ivorylike bone, tough hoof, and hereditary soundness. In the desert, roaring-the curse of our breeds of horses, from the thoroughbred to the farm slave-is unknown, and the absence of this unmusical propensity is of itself an undeniable recommendation. But, as I had occasion to remark in the Live Stock Journal (when writing on the subject of

hackney stallions), Arabs frequently stand well above the normal 14h. lin. and 14h. 2in. high. The grey Arab stallion Smetanxa, the founder of the Russian breed of Orloff trotters, was a horse of commanding size and of unusual power. Naomi, now in the United States, measures 15h. 23in. The late Mr. Skene (when Consul-General at Aleppo) sent me two Anezeh mares, the one 15h. 14in., the other 15h. 2in. It is on record that in 1729 an Arabian was in service in Norfolk, "by size 15h. 3in., and strength proportionate." Later on, in 1762, Pettigrew's Grey Barb-the Barbary horses are descended from Arabians-height 15h. 1in., was also travelling in the same county. Aleppo, the Ormonde of his day on the turf of Bengal, stood 15h. 2in. The Sakhur tribe, on the borders of Moab, have some well-grown mares. Thanks to the Live Stock Journal and to its contributors, the important part played by the Arabians, the Barbs, and other horses of Eastern origin in founding our families of racers, trotters, and hackneys, and even coach horses, has been freely and forcibly illustrated. It has been conclusively shown that not only is the Arab the most potent factor in the composition of our racers, but also that—

Oh, he's such a one to bend the knee, and tuck his haunches in, And to throw the dirt in flats' eyes he never thinks a sin. We know that one of the most famous trotting families of America is of Eastern descent, and that an astute and enterprising breeder, Mr. R. Huntington, of Rochester, New York, is so impressed with the value of this hard, blue blood, that he has lately made some purchases from Mr. Vidal's stud, with a view to replenishing this strain, and of establishing a pure trotting tribe, to rival the record of Maud S., of the Western gelding Gay, and of Axtell, champion three-year-old of the States. The ancestry of this trotting phenomenon supplies abundant proof that Mr. Huntington is working on promising ground, and that to this colt's back desert blood is due the foundation of his excellence. That he has the trotting instinct intensified is substantiated by the following tabulated pedigree :

Morgan was an Anglo-Arabian, and the dam of Dolly Spanker, an in-bred Morgan mare; American Star owes his paternity to an Arab-sired Canadian pacer, and the name of the thoroughbred Stockholm crops up in his pedigree. Gano was by American Eclipse, who boasted the Arab strain, and both Sherman Morgan and Buckshot were doubly in-bred to Morgan. Henry Clay, a famous trotting stallion, was sired by Andrew Jackson (also a famous trotter), a grandson of the imported Barb Bashaw. So Axtell, sold the other day for the sensational sum of 105,000 dollars, is anchored on a solid foundation of courage and endurance.

Mr. Huntington's efforts will be watched with attention; and I, for one, heartily wish him all the success his imagination paints and his pluck deserves. A glance at the pedigree of many of the best trotters in America, prior to the civil war, will show that the latent Arab trotting instinct was not slow in developing itself in the New World. The Russian Orloffs claim Eastern parentage. The Cleveland Bay, now so deservedly popular on the other side of the Atlantic, must have a dash of the Anezeh in him. The Romans had Arab races at Ebor; and the arrival of the Leeds and Darley Arabians caused such a furore that the nobility and landed gentry of the three Ridings vied with each other for the possession of this potent element. For years after this Yorkshire horses were practically invincible; till that famous Southerner, Whisker-said to have been as near perfection as need be-travelled north, and inflicted signal defeat on the stables of the Tykes. By the way, I must mention that Catherina (Whisker's famous daughter) ran no less than 171 races, and died at the age of thirty-one. What racehorse of modern days could stand such a "bucketing" as

this?

Very few quite first-class Arabs reach this country, hence the unreasoning prejudice against them. The breed is said to have deteriorated within the last thirty years, but, seeing that it has successfully withstood several centuries of close inbreeding, this cannot possibly be the case. The Sultan has, it is reported, placed his veto on the export; but my impression is that, as in time gone by, I, with a well-lined purse and carte blanche as to price, could pick up a few specimens of the highest caste horses, and probably a mare or two, such as would silence all carpers, and convince the most sceptical that there are still to be found amongst the desert-born superlative illustrations of that stock which boasts an ancestry of great deeds and mighty traditions. Horses that outrival all the rest, "the pearl of the casket," are no more to be bought for a mess of pottage in Arabia than here; and this is especially true both in Nejd and Mesopotamia, where so much store is set by blue blood. As for the Sultan's dog-in-the-manger iradee, that writ won't run, especially when it is sought to be imposed on these

nomad rievers, who care nought for Abdul Hamed or the Porte. The dollar (backed by influence) is as omnipotent in the horsehair tents of the Bedaween as ever it can be in Lombard Street. "Gold wins where angels might despair."

The Arabian has somewhat suffered in public estimation by ill-advised attempts to measure his speed against that of our modern racehorses. I once entertained the fallacy, but a trial at Newmarket between a plater belonging to the late Mr. Caledon Alexander, and the famous Mysore and Bombay "crack" Copenhagen, convinced me of my mistake. On the racecourse the Arab is at a manifest disadvantage, being built on lines which are quite different from those of our greyhound-like thoroughbred. He is bred in the desert, exists for one purpose, and that is to carry his freebooting owner on his long and rapidly executed razzias; whereas the thoroughbred, since the days of King James I., has been the product of careful selection for racing purposes solely; and, in these latter days, every consideration has been sacrificed to the development of speed alone; all the science and sound principles of breeding, which our ancestors were the first to establish, being very generally disregarded. Had we started ab initio from pure Arabian blood on both sides, sire and dam being alike noted for bottom and speed, and from different tribes, importing fresh blood from time to time for an outcross; and had we so bred for the turf exclusively, there is nodoubt that the Anglo-Arabian would now be in every respect as high under the standard as the average of our racehorses,. of at least equal speed, and their superior in courage, soundness,. and general utility. That this exotic breed can in course of time, under altered conditions of climate, food, and treatment, and does increase in height without sacrifice of power and just symmetry, is equally true. Miss Dillon has a two-year-old now 15h. on short legs, and its dam is barely 14h., its sire but 14h. 24in. Her famous jumper Raschida is 15h. 1in., and growing; and at Crabbet Park are two fillies, bred there, of the same height. In the course of three generations English-bred Arabs will lack nothing in respect of height.

But it is as a hunter and war-horse, or both combined, that the Arab is at his very best. In old Deccan days of "saddle, spur, and spear," what stirring camp-fire tales each hard-riding pigsticker had to tell of the superb little nag that had carried him so gallantly over such breakneck ground, "as though the speed. of thought were in his limbs!" What a picture is the trained hog-hunter at the jungle side as the discordant yells of the beaters, floating down wind, proclaim the find, and announce the joyful tidings that the bristling banditti are afoot! Note the eager expression of his clean-cut patrician head and wide-thrown nostril; the bold, resolute eye; his noble bearing, as he intently scans the echoing hill-side! How his desert blood.