EEMTNISCENCES OP THE LEWS. 47 



good old dog had at last found the line of birds 

 — the flat at the head of the burn — he took us 

 to them, and we were well rewarded. Now, 

 with ordinary ranging dogs this never could 

 have been done ; yet this very same Whack, 

 the first time I took him out in a civilised 

 country, in Yorkshire, where there were clouds 

 of unapproachable grouse in a small compass, 

 was useless. In about half an hour he came to 

 me, and said, " I'm no use here ; I don't un- 

 derstand this, and if you please I'll keep at 

 heel." And so he did; and when at last, by a 

 fluke, I or some one else killed a grouse, he 

 retrieved it, for he is a perfect retriever of 

 winged game. After laying it carefully at my 

 feet, and turning it over and over in every 

 direction, and smelling it, he looked up and 

 said, " I believe it is a grouse, but it is not 

 like ours." The next day he trotted before me 

 like a turnspit, and became used to the ways of 

 those parts ; but I do not think we either of us 

 very much cared for them. I am convinced 

 from all I have seen — and I have watched dog- 

 breaking very carefully since I was a boy of 

 fifteen, both in Great Britain and Ireland, and 

 abroad — that W. 0. is right, and that you 

 should break your dogs according to your 

 game and your country. Your in-ground, 



