178 KRIBER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



the nervous man is to follow the example just 

 quoted, and take a close look at the demeanor of 

 his dogs, before he proceeds to flush the game. 

 By doing this he will not only receive an edify- 

 ing hint to restrain his own ardor at the right 

 moment, and consequently learn to shoot better, 

 but also gain an insight into the hearts of his 

 canine friends which will be worth remembering. 

 Ponto is not a mere sporting implement, like the 

 gun, gentle reader; he participates in all the 

 hopes, the fears, the joys of the day, which, how- 

 ever, only stimulates him in the pursuit of game, 

 and makes him staunch and true to his point. 

 He inherits his professional qualities and dis- 

 plays them in the field at a very early age. We 

 now rejoice in a stock of pointers, the puppies 

 of which hunt, stand and back before they are 

 six months old, requiring, in fact, little training 

 except to be taught to keep steady at the report 

 of the gun, and we have seen a setter which had 

 not attained his majority by several months, to 

 astonish a number of veteran sportsmen by the 

 admirable manner in which he found and stood 

 snipe. Whether the dog returns wholly to dust 

 or no, it cannot be denied that he has a- soul for 

 sport. The question of his immortality has been 

 ably discussed in a late number of the Edin- 



