Some American Sporting Dogs. 



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POINTERS OF FIFTY YEARS AGO. FROM AI 



with a gun ; and it is more particularly with those varieties that I 

 feel at home, and regarding which I propose to write ; premising 

 that I am addressing the general reader as well as those young 

 sportsmen who for lack of time and opportunity have yet to learn 

 their A, B, C's in dog matters. The interest in dogs, particularly 

 those used in shooting, has of late so increased that scores of would- 

 be critics and authorities have sprung up. Without pretending to 

 the erudition of those professors in canine lore, my object is to 

 impart to the class first mentioned such information, the result of 

 my own experience, as will aid them, not only in deciding what 

 description of dog may best suit their purposes, but also in keeping 

 their dogs in health and right condition. To further assist my 

 endeavors, I have selected for illustration such dogs as are types of 

 their various classes, and who have attained celebrity on the show- 

 bench and in the field. Those who are not in the habit of reading 

 the sporting literature of the day — and I mean by this the literature 

 provided for the sportsman, not the sporting man — would be sur- 

 prised were they made aware of the amount of paper spoiled and 

 ink spilled in the wordy warfare which has been carried on for two 

 or three years past, relative to the merits and demerits of various 

 strains. Nor is the discussion confined to strains alone. I find 

 myself at the outset called upon to decide, or at least so to describe 



