THE SETTER. 15 



ground, whether produced by frost or otherwise, when the Span- 

 ish pointer cannot be induced to move from the sportsman's 

 heels. Also, while the latter, from the tenderness of the skin, 

 manifests the utmost reluctance to enter a thicket, the setter will 

 rush through the brambles with dauntless impetuosity. 



At the commencement of the shooting season, when the wea- 

 ther is excessively hot, the setter is supposed to suffer more from 

 thirst than the pointer ; this is undoubtedly the case, and arises 

 from the long warm coat of the former ; and on the grouse 

 mountains, where water is seldom met with, exposes this gener- 

 ous animal to great inconvenience ; not that the pointer is 

 by any means exempt from that excessive thirst which is uni- 

 formly produced by great exertion under a burning sun ; but, as 

 he is more thinly clad, and generally moves much slower, so he is 

 consequently less in want of water. 



Another supposition, which generally obtains belief, respect- 

 ing the comparative merits of these two animals, is neither so rea- 

 sonably nor so justly founded, namely, that the olfactory organs 

 of the setter are inferior to those of his foreign rival. On this 

 subject, it seems necessary, in the first place to observe, that 

 the best nosed pointers are those which still retain much of the 

 blood of the old English talbot or blood-hound (as no doubt, I 

 think, can exist, that the Spanish pointer when first brought to 

 this country was crossed with the talbot) ; and almost all those 

 pointers of the present day, which have the best noses, are 

 found to approximate in form and appearance the old English 

 blood hound, whose olfactory organs were no doubt superior to 

 those of any other race of dogs which was ever known in 

 these islands. The old English setter, which many years ago, 

 existed perhaps in the greatest possible perfection, has since , 

 undergone various crosses, which have not only injured the 

 beauty of his appearance, but diminished that exquisite sense of 



smell, which is so essential to the delightful recreation of shoot- 



B 2 



