THE SETTER. 181 



wet, and dauntless beyond any other in covert, but more 

 susceptible of heat and thirst than the others of his race. 



He is, I think, rather taller than the English or Irish 

 dog, muscular and bony ; his head is shorter and rounder 

 than that of his family, and, like the rest of his body, is 

 so completely covered with long, woolly, matted locks, 

 tangled and curly like those of the water-poodle, only 

 ten times more so, that he can hardly see out of his 

 eyes. 



His color is black, black and white, or pale lemon and 

 white. I never saw one of any other color. I never have 

 seen a pure one, though I once owned a half breed a 

 most superior animal in America, nor are they common 

 or easily attainable in England. 



I learned to shoot over one in England, which I was 

 permitted to take out alone, because it was well known 

 that " Henry could not spoil Charon ; " and almost every 

 thing that I know of shooting that old Russian taught me. 

 He would not drop to shot, if a bird were killed, but dashed 

 right in to fetch ; yet I never saw him flush a bird of a 

 scattered covey in my life; for if the fresh birds lay 

 between him and those killed, he would set them all one 

 by one. In the same way, if a hare were wounded, which 

 he knew by the eye by some indescribable sign which no 

 man could descry, he always chased and never failed to 

 retrieve him. If he were missed or went away without a 

 shot, he would charge steadily enough ; but if two or 

 three shots were missed in succession, particularly in the 

 first of the morning, home he went in disgust, hi spite of 

 all threats or coaxing. 



