FIRST LESSON IN AUTUMN COMMENCED. 541 



want not an undirected ramble, but a judicious travers- 

 ing beat under your own guidance, 'which shall leave no 

 ground unexplored, and yet have none twice explored. 



129. Suppose the form of the field, as is usually the 

 case, to approach a parallelogram or square, and that 

 the wind blows in any direction but diagonally across 

 it. On entering at the leeward side send the dog from 

 you by a wave of your hand or the word " On." You 

 wish him, while you are advancing up the middle of it, 

 to cross you at right angles, say from right to left, 

 then to run up-wind for a little, parallel to your own 

 direction, and afterwards to recross in front of you from 

 left to right, and so on until the whole field is regularly 

 hunted. To effect this, notwithstanding your previous 

 preparatory lessons, you will have to show him the way, 



on certain days in slight frost, for instance, setters will recognise 

 it better than pointers, and, on the other hand, that the nose of the 

 latter will prove far superior after a long continuance of dry 

 weather, and this even when the setter has been furnished with 

 abundance of water which circumstance pleads in favor of hunt- 

 ing pointers and setters together. The argument against it, is the 

 usual inequality of their pace, and, to the eye of some sportsmen, 

 the want of harmony in their appearance. Should not this uncer 

 tainty respecting the recognition of scent teach us not to continue 

 hunting a good dog who is frequently making mistakes, but rather 

 to keep him at " heel " for an hour or two ? He will consider it a 

 kind of punishment, and be doubly careful when next enlarged. 

 Moreover, he may be slightly feverish from overwork, or he may 

 nave come in contact with some impurity, in either of which 

 3ases hii nose would be temporarily out of order. 



