110 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN, 



horror. A reckless, headstrong Dog, we grant, is quite enough 

 to try the temper of the most self-governed man in the world, 

 but nevertheless should not be quite sufficient to cause him to 

 kick him in anger or shoot him in desperation and rage ; if we 

 cannot control our own actions by the aid of education and our 

 reasoning faculties, how much less ought we to expect a dumb 

 brute to do it, who has had so much less tutoring and possesses 

 but a tittle of the intellectual force bestowed on us. 



The natural instinct or bent of inclination, we all know, is 

 very powerfully coercive in its operations over the actions of 

 the brute creation ; and how difficult then must it ever be for a 

 high-strung, full-blooded Dog to suppress the spontaneous im- 

 pulse that urges him to spring upon game when under his very 

 nose, or race after it when on the wing. The act of pointing 

 game^ it must be recollected, is not a truly automatic instinct of 

 the animal, as many suppose, but the beautiful result of disci- 

 pline and long training in one special branch. The habit, how- 

 ever, has now become so confirmed through this persevering 

 education on the part of Sportsmen, that each generation of 

 Pointers, more particularly those of pure breeds, seem to pos- 

 sess an involuntary desire to practise those actions that have 

 been inculcated by the lash in their forefathers. 



Many breeds of Pointers have this faculty of standing game 

 so early and powerfully developed that it is analogous to second 

 nature; for we often see whole litters of Pups that stop so in- 

 stinctively at the first scent of game, that they point the moment 

 they come 'apon Partridges, without the least tutoring, and 

 without knowing the why or the wherefore. 



There may be, however, more instinct in this practice of 

 pointing than we at first are willing to suppose, as we know 

 that most predatory animals either lie in wait for prey or creep 

 crouchingly towards it for the purpose of surprise. In the 

 Pointer, therefore, the habit may be somewhat instinctive iu 

 itself; but as now perfected and propagated in the whole breed 

 is the result, as before stated, of nice education. It is better in 

 throwing the Dogs off' to give them the wind, which they after- 

 wards will be very apt to keep, if taught to quarter their ground 

 properly. Dogs should be spoken to as little as possible in the 

 field, and as much accomplished by signal as can be ; the eye 



