of exaggeration as to lose all
regularity, at the same time that it is rendered valueless for any
practical purpose. The trotter can no more be put to his speed upon an
ordinary road than can the racer himself. By breaking up the natural
gait of a horse he is made to attain an exceptional speed, it is true,
but in doing so he has contracted an abnormal sort of movement for which
it is impossible to find a name. It is something between a trot and a
racking pace, and with it a first-rate trotter can make four kilometres
(two miles and a half) in seven minutes and a half, and not much less,
whatever may be said to the contrary. I know that certain time-keepers
have marked this distance as having been done in seven minutes, but this
I consider disputable, to say the least." M. d'Etreilles cites, however,
as an exception to his rules, a horse called Rochester, belonging to the
Prince E. de Beauvan, which trotted nineteen miles in one hour without
breaking or pacing, but when a return bet was proposed, with the
distance increased to twenty miles, the owner of Rochester refused.

These assertions of the French authority will appear strange enough to
Americans. But we must add that the views of M. d'Etreilles on this
subject are by no means universally shared in France. A writer whose
practical experience and long observation entitle his opinions to much
weight--M. Gayot--goes so far as to say that the American trotters
really form a distinct race. "The Northern States of the Union," he
writes, "have accomplished for the trotter what England has done for the
thoroughbred: by selecting the best--that is to say, the swiftest and
the most enduring--and by breeding from these, there has been fixed in
the very nature of their progeny that wonderful aptitude for speed
which," in direct contradiction to the opinion of M. d'Etreilles, he
declares to be "of the greatest practical utility."

The administration of the Haras and the Society for the Encouragement of
the Raising of Horses of Half-blood have established special meetings at
which trotting-prizes are given. That these are by no means to be
despised has been proved by M. Jouben's Norman trotter Tentateur, who
last year earned for his owner twenty thousand francs without the bets.
There is a special journal, _La France Chevaline_, which represents the
interests of the "trot," and its development has been further encouraged
by an appropriation of sixty thousand francs voted this y