The Pointer. 119 



ment on the pointer or setter proper. The pointer of to-day is an animal 

 that has been produced by the most careful exercise of knowledge gained 

 by keen observation, assisted by extensive breeding and sporting expe- 

 rience. He is now a dog specially adapted to his work. He has been 

 rendered capable of doing it with the greatest amount of ease and effi- 

 ciency. By careful selection he has been divested of all the lumber that 

 was the cause of his distress in years gone by. His pace has been 

 improved by a due regard to the formation of his chest ; it is now deeper 

 and narrower than formerly. He is, as a consequence, capable of hunting 

 a larger range of ground without becoming useless by excessive fatigue. 

 The ease with which the present shape of his shoulders and chest allows 

 him to sweep over his ground in graceful strides, and to preserve and 

 exercise with advantage his gift of scent, is a pleasure to witness. 



There is no doubt that field trials and dog shows that have been held 

 for the past fifteen years have greatly contributed towards the attain- 

 ment of his present high state of excellence ; but, much as I admire the 

 modern pointer, there is just one of his properties that I do not think 

 has been improved, at least, by no means so much as have others I 

 mean his olfactory powers. He does not appear to possess any greater 

 or even so great a faculty of scenting game now as he did years ago. 

 But I am fully aware that the great speed at which most pointers hunt 

 the ground now, as compared with the old-fashioned dog of, say, twenty- 

 five years ago, ought to be taken into account in considering this matter. 

 It is more than probable that the slower a dog goes the greater are his 

 facilities for taking into his nostrils the atoms of scent. Assuming this 

 to be the case, the slow dog of the past had an advantage in " winding " 

 game over the flyers of to-day. 



Be this as it may, the pointer now, to my thinking, does not " spot" out 

 his game with the ease and certainty at the great distance he once did. 

 For let an old slow dog trot round or across a field of ordinary size, and 

 if he did not point, you might depend on it there was no game in it. His 

 nose appeared to be good enough to allow him to go almost straight to 

 his game without the laborious quartering of the ground, which is now so 

 necessary, and without which much game would be left behind. 



I may be permitted to remark that many of my sporting friends who 

 have used pointers all their lives are of my opinion upon the subject. 

 My father, too, has used pointers and setters for nearly fifty years, and 



