274 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 



terror on many creatures, not excepting' men, lias 

 precisely tlio reverse effect, and tliat instead of 

 failing, tlie aroma referred to increases ; but such a 

 foolish assertion as to a j^ower to ^ ' withhold scent " 

 is scarce worth even a short notice. 



I saw my red Irish setter, ^' Nellie," only three 

 days before thus jmtting pen to paper, in thick 

 gorse as high as my waist in some places, but 

 worse from its short dense thickness in others, 

 endeavouring to retrieve for me a landrail whose 

 wing was broken. I stood still, and said nothing 

 after the words to ^' seek dead." Oh, that I could 

 ^^ding" these Avise words, ^'Let him, or let her, 

 alone," into men's foolish heads, when they tell the 

 canine wiser ones, the retrievers, to look for a fallen 

 bird. Surrounded l)y extreme diffi'culties, — of 

 position, severity of cover, and distracting scents 

 of uninjured game, — a retriever's mind should be 

 left to its full exercise as well as his nose ; for, if 

 tracing a stricken but running bird, brain and nose 

 ought to go together.* Nellie knew she was trying 

 to retrieve a landrail, just as well as I knew that a 

 landrail had fallen to my gun ; and, having kept 



* " Nellie," this darling of my leisure hours, died of a complicated 

 disorder, external and internal, in the close of the winter of 1874. 



