174 THE ENGLISH SETTER AT WORK. 



ranging, I was occasionally turning my head from him 

 to mark the course of my waggons, or to observe the in 

 terminable swell of the plains around me, when I heard 

 the dear companion at my heels, Brutus, make those snaps 

 with his jaws that I had so often heard from him when 

 my dogs were pointing game in England, and I knew 

 that he observed that Chance was at a stand. Turning my 

 head, then, in the direction of the setter's range, for a few 

 seconds no moving object was to be seen, but at last a sta 

 tionary red spot, gone down very low in the grass, showed 

 me that Chance was almost setting at something close under 

 his nose. The point (for the stop to game which Chance 

 makes ranges between a point and a set) looked like one 

 made at a rabbit, for the English rabbit is dotted about 

 all over the prairies,* though not even in the woods or 

 creeks in any quantities, for which latter fact I can in no 

 way account. On arriving within a little distance of the 

 dog I dismounted, and, throwing the rein over Charlie's 

 head, walked up to him, and asked him a question, the 

 intonation and import of which he well knew, " Of what 

 is it, old dog?' 7 Chance's bright yellow eyes slightly 

 turned towards me, and then resumed their fixedness; 

 but I also observed that the impression of his face was un 

 like that which it wore on an assured fact of game un 

 der his nose ; so I asked Brutus the question I had asked 

 Chance, when, on stepping to the front and applying his 

 nose, as if expecting to pick up a wounded bird or a rab 

 bit from its form, he also made a very funny face, and I 

 began to have wild notions of a poisonous snake. On this 

 I peered into the grass, and, seeing a mottled surface un- 



* It has since been denied by some people pretending to a knowledge of tlie 

 matter, that the English rabbit is one of the wild denizens of the plains. The 

 fact, however, is as I state it ; the common rabbit of England is very frequently to 

 be found in America. 



