54 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



Of all descriptions of dogs used in field shoot- 

 ing, we unreservedly advance the opinion, that a 

 swift thorough-going pointer or setter is, beyond 

 dispute, the best for snipe. 



They know practically little of what they are 

 writing about, who assert, in these latter days, 

 that a slow dog is to be preferred in this species 

 of sport. We grant that the assertion may hold 

 good if intended to be applied to an old man, or 

 a fair-weather sportsman ; and in that case we 

 are not surprised, when carrying out the remark, 

 some writers tell you, sotto voce, that perhaps 

 you had better leave the dogs at home. We re- 

 gard their advice, in this particular, pretty much 

 as Dash or Czar would do, themselves, provided 

 that they could comprehend the author were the 

 last, with equal point and propriety, to advise 

 them to beware of hunting too fast, lest they 

 should over-heat their systems or founder their 

 feet that is to say, with a stare and a sniff. So 

 far from admitting them to be sportsmen, we 

 doubt if ever in their lives they "felt so much 

 cold as over shoes in snow," and are inclined to 

 conjecture that they must have been the veritable 

 Cockneys, whose dogs, after witnessing a few of 

 their exploits, left them, in unmitigated disgust, 

 and went quietly home to resume their slumbers. 



