540 DOG-BREAKING. 



tind birds, until his spirits are somewhat sobered, and he 

 begins partly to comprehend your instructions respect- 

 ing his range. There is no reason why he should not 

 have been taken out a few days before this, not to show 

 him birds, but to have commenced teaching him how 

 to traverse his ground. Indeed, if we had supposed him 

 of a sufficient age 111 he might by this time be some- 

 what advanced towards a systematic beat. It is seeing 

 birds early that is to be deprecated, not his being taught 

 how to range. 



128. J3e careful to enter every field at the leeward* 

 side about the middle, that he may have the wind to 

 work against. Choose a day when there is a breeze, 

 but not a boisterous one. In a calm the scent is sta- 

 tionary, and can hardly be found unless accidentally. 

 In a gale it is scattered to the four quarters.f You 



* " Leeward " a nautical phrase here meaning the side to- 

 wards which the wind blows from the field. If you entered else- 

 where, the dog while ranging would be tempted, from the natural 

 bearing of his nose towards the wind, to come back upon you, 

 making his first turn inwards instead of outwards. 



| But, independently of these obvious reasons, scent is affected 

 by causes into the nature of which none of us can penetrate. 

 Thei'e is a contrariety in it that ever has puzzled, and apparently 

 ever will puzzle, the most observant sportsman whether a lover of 

 the chase or gun, and therefore, in ignorance of the doubtless 

 immutable, though to us inexplicable, laws by which it is regulated, 

 we are contented to call it " capricious." Immediately before 

 heavy rain there frequently is none. It is undeniable that mois- 

 ture will at one time destroy it at another time bring it. That 



