222 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



How I came to tlio knowledge of tliis want 

 of trust in, or ignorance of, my pools, was thus. 

 In one of my bogs, not where my best decoys 

 are now, I had, in the first instance, made a small 

 pool, surrounded by an aboriginal swamp, and 

 there in two instances I had dropped mallards to 

 my gun. In each case, as there were one or two 

 other mallards flying round, I crouched, with my 

 retriever at my heels, in tlie hope of another shot. 

 When the birds on wing had disaj^peared, the re- 

 triever was sent for the mallard that had fallen. The 

 dog had seen the bird fall, and went immediately 

 to the sjDot, but was, for an instant, misdirected in 

 his search in the water by a rabbit. The dog, 

 however, soon set himself right, and returned to 

 where the mallard had fallen ; and then, to my 

 surprise, instead of continuing in the shallow water 

 and rushes, adjoining the deeper pool, he set off on 

 dry land over the heather up the hill, stern down 

 and head in air, and was liidden from further obser- 

 vation by the rising brow. 



'' That nmst be a hare or rabbit," I thought to 

 myself; but as a tried retriever, knowing well 

 what he had to do, had a better facult/j to judge hy 

 than I had, as is my invariable custom, I let tJie 



