WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 51 



better work, nor a prettier sight. Well might Keryfan be proud 

 of such a brace of dogs, and fairly might he be pardoned for 

 believing they were faultless in their work as any man's dogs in 

 Brittany. 



A year only afterwards Mars and Dian became my property. 

 Keryfan had sustained a shock which made him renounce the gun 

 for the rest of his life. His confidential servant, Pastor, keeper, 

 piqueur, henchman, and friend to him, had his head blown to 

 pieces by a blundering Englishman, who, in shooting at a covey of 

 birds, missed them, and killed the man. Knowing well my 

 appreciation of his two dogs, he wrote me the following letter after 

 that sad event. 



" DEAR FRANK, 



" You will be grieved to hear the bad news this letter 

 conveys. Yesterday poor Pastor was killed in the field. He was 

 out shooting with a novice, who, bungling with his triggers, shot 

 him instead of his bird. I am greatly distressed by the accident, 

 for, as you know, Pastor was my right hand in all things, an 

 honest man, and a friend I could ill spare in these times. 



" I have made up my mind never to shoot again. So if Mars 

 and Dian will be of any use to you, pray accept them from 



" Your old friend, 



" KERYFAN." 



There is one especial feature in which the Brittany pointers far 

 excel all I have met with in other countries they will face the 

 strongest gorse cover without hesitation, and draw it for birds, as 

 a foxhound would draw it for a fox. They certainly are not so 

 fine in the skin as the Spanish or English pointers ; but, although 

 they do not carry long-haired jackets and feathered sterns like 

 setters or spaniels, their coats are thick and close-set, and well 

 adapted to the rough country in which they do their work. They 



