3S CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



dnrtion to the PhuMii.-ian traders who brought them to Spain and to this country at so remote a 

 period, that they may be regarded lien' :is indigenous. 



The Pointer is quite smooth, commonly marked like the foxhound, or with more spreading dark 

 colours ; some of the best breed are, however, entirely black. 



The power of scent in a dog is very different from the human sense of smell. Were a man to 

 nib his nostrils and lips with strongly offensive matter, his nose would not },e able lo overpower the 

 stench within it sufficiently to distinguish other smells. But the hound or pointer will ram his 

 nose into filthy matter, and yet be able to wind the bird at the distance of fifty yards, or trace the line 

 of a fox, a hare, or a rabbit, which even to the clear nose of a man would indicate nothing. The 

 slot of a deer, the pad-mark of a fox, and the warm form of a disturbed hare or rabbit, will yield its 

 scent to human olfactories, yet hounds, reeking as to their nostrils and lips with foetid matter, which 

 smells offensively to the sportsman at the distance of twenty yards, will come swiftly over the steps 

 that gave the sportsman no information, and pick up a continuous line of chase by nose, which will 

 serve them to run the animal down. 



There is a remarkable self-denial in a setter or a pointer. The hound gives full play to his feel- 

 ings ; chases and babbles, and makes as much noise as he likes, provided only he is true to his game. 

 The spaniel is under no restraint, except being kept within gunshot. The greyhound has it all his 

 own way as soon as he is loosed. And the terrier watches at the rat's hole, because he cannot get into 

 it. But the pointer, at the very moment when other dogs satisfy themselves, and rush upon their 

 game, suddenly stops, and points, with almost breathless anxiety, to that which we might naturally 

 suppose he would eagerly seize. He seems to feel, " this is my master's, aud not mine ; and here I 

 am till he comes up, or the birds are off of themselves." If, too, a steady pointer be narrowly 

 watched on his game, it will be seen how he holds his breath. It is evident he must stand in a 

 certain degree of pain, for a dog respires quickly ; and when he comes up to his master in the field, he 

 puffs and blows, and his tongue is invariably hanging out of his mouth. Yet this is never seen on a 

 point. The effort to be quiet, with fetching the breath deeply, causes, at intervals, a sudden hysteric 

 gasp, which he cannot possibly prevent till he can breathe freely again. If the birds run, he creeps 

 after cautiously and carefully, stopping at intervals, lest, , by a sudden movement, he should spring 

 them too soon. Great is his delight when his anxiety is crowned with success, as the bird falls, and 

 he lays it at his master's feet. 



Allusion has already been made to the qualifications or habits of dogs -certainly not innate, but 

 the result of education, at least, originally, which education, continued through a series of generations, 

 has produced permanent effects. No dog, for example, in a state of nature, would point with his nose 

 at a partridge, and then stand motionless as a statue, for the dog would gain nothing by the proceeding. 

 Man, however, has availed himself of the docility and delicacy of scent peculiar to a certain breed ; he 

 has taught the dog his lesson, and the lesson has become a second nature. A young pointer take's to 

 its work as if by intuition, and scarcely requires discipline. Thus, education modifies organisation 

 not that it makes a dog otherwise than a dog, but it qualifies its existing instinct, or renders acquired 

 propensities instinctive, hereditary, and, therefore, characteristic of the race. The effect of this 

 change of nature is not to give the dog an advantage over its fellows, but to rivet more firmly the 

 links of subjection to man. 



So firmly is this habit fixed in some dogs, that Mr. Gilpin is said to have painted a brace of 

 pointers while in the act of pointing, and that they stood for an hour and a quarter without moving. 

 These were Pluto and Juno, the property of Colonel Thornton. . Another pointer, named Da-sh, 

 belonging to the same sportsman, was sold for .100 worth of burgundy and champagne, one hogshead 

 of claret, an elegant gun, and a pointer ; but with the proviso, thfrt, should an accident disable the 

 dog, he should be returned to the Colonel at the price of i'.'ili : 



A gentleman, fond of field sports, had a dog, named Don, a fox-hound pointer, his mother having 



been a true pointer, and his father a fox-hound. He was nearly a twelvemonth old before he could 



a hunted at all, when he was so riotous that his master began to think he never would stand ; 



having tired him out one day, as he was returning home, the dog happened to drop upon 



a hen pheasant, and made a most brilliant point, This gave his master some hope, and, as Don was a 



remarkably handsome and strongly.built dog, it was determined to conquer him. 



