THE POINTER. 191 



The first of these varieties is faulty, for the same 

 reason as the old Spanish dog ; they do not get over the 

 ground with sufficient rapidity to allow of a reasonable 

 bag being made in reasonable time ; they are apt to knock 

 up, owing to their weight and faulty structure, and they 

 are painfully ugly to behold. 



The second fails from the natural consequences of over 

 delicacy ; his coat is too fine, he cannot endure cold or wet, 

 he cannot face the lightest covert, he cannot do half a 

 day's work in proper form. If hunted alone, he will find 

 little or no game, if in company with other dogs, he will do 

 the backing to their pointing, but no more. He is a suffi- 

 ciently worthless dog any where, but in America particu- 

 larly worthless, because particularly unfit for those very 

 specialities of work which he should be particularly fitted 

 to perform covert-shooting and snipe-shooting. For the 

 former of these purposes the pointer is, I may say, never 

 used in the British Isles; for the latter, when old and 

 steady, he is generally preferred. 



The third variety is liable to two objections ; he is apt 

 to stoop too much, and puzzle for his scent on the ground, 

 hound-fashion, instead of drawing handsomely with his head 

 high ; and he is inclined to run in and chase, especially 

 on hares and rabbits, from which vice it is frequently very 

 difficult to break him. 



The best form of the pointer is the medium between 

 the first two varieties ; and a dog of this kind, of the 

 proper shape and style, well bred, well broken, and well 

 hunted, will be found to do his work for courage, stout- 

 ness, scent, and endurance of heat and thirst, as well as, if 



