364 SHOOTING. 



as nets or guns. This, we are aware, may be a 

 doubtful position to maintain ; but who can say for 

 what other apparent purpose this peculiar faculty 

 was given? It may, indeed, be urged, that the 

 propensity to point, in the pointer, is a means 

 ordained by providence for his subsistence in a 

 wild state, by enabling him to approach within 

 reach of his prey, and thus to accomplish, by 

 another species of stealth, what the tiger and other 

 animals of the cat tribe effect by ambuscade. Such 

 an argument, however, is presumptively rebutted 

 by the fact, that all existing races of wild dogs are 

 gregarious, and resort to the chase for food ; nor 

 is there any record of the existence of dogs in a 

 state of nature, except those calculated for the 

 chase. It is therefore gratuitous to assert, that 

 the instinct or faculty of pointing was bestowed 

 upon the pointer as a means of subsistence, since 

 he has ever been dependant on man for food. 



It is strongly argued, that all dogs have de- 

 scended from one common stock, and that by diffe- 

 rence in food, climate, and training, they have be- 

 come what they are at present ; nor is it more im- 

 probable that such is the fact, than that the human 

 race are descended from one common parent ; for 

 dogs are not more dissimilar than the various 

 tribes of men, who differ not only in outward form, 

 but morally and intellectually, as much as dogs 

 vary in size, shape, temper, and sagacity. Those 

 animals which can be domesticated improve by ac- 

 quaintance with man, as the wild fruits by culti- 

 vation. All wild dogs have some qualities in 



