ALIX, THE PRESENT CHAMPION TROTTER (2:03¼) ” ” 255 HAMBLETONIAN (RYSDYK’S) ” ” 267 GEORGE WILKES, SON OF HAMBLETONIAN ” ” 284 ELECTIONEER, SON OF HAMBLETONIAN ” ” 289 ABDALLAH (ALEXANDER’S), SON OF HAMBLETONIAN ” ” 294 NANCY HANKS, BY HAPPY MEDIUM (2:04) ” ” 306 ETHAN ALLEN, BY VERMONT BLACK HAWK ” ” 381 NOTE.—Nine of the above engravings have been reproduced, by permission, from the Portfolio issued by _The Horse Review_. THE HORSE OF AMERICA. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. General View of the Field Traversed. In undertaking to fulfill a promise made years ago, to write a history of the American Trotting Horse and his ancestors, I am met with the inquiry: What were his ancestors and whence did they come? To say that the American Trotter, the phenomenal horse of this century, is descended from a certain horse imported from England in 1788, does not fully meet the requirements of the truth, for there are other and very distinctive elements embodied in his inheritance that are not indebted to that particular imported horse. In searching for these undefined elements, I have found myself in the fields of antiquity, reaching out step by step, further and further, until the utmost boundaries of all history, sacred and profane, were clearly in view. There I found a field that was especially attractive because it was a new field, and the relations of the peoples of the earliest ages to their horses had never been investigated nor discussed. Having no engagements nor necessities to hurry me, the careful exploration of this hitherto unknown territory has afforded me very great enjoyment.