BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 81 



fully enough to remedy the defect of obtuseness of 

 smell, he is but an indifferent pottering apology for 

 a pointer. I have known men who have had a kind 

 of diaboHc pleasure in taking a dog in hand, tha 

 another with some feelings of humanity has given 

 up as incorrigible, and if by positive barbarity they 

 have cured him of his failings, have gloried in their 

 achievement. Save us from contact with such 

 wretched specimens of our kind ; such a man must 

 be a brute in nature, and most probably a coward at 

 heart, if put to real test. I admit that having a 

 day's sport spoiled is annoying in no small degree, 

 but the loss of amusement is no justification for cruelty 

 or undue severity. One great mistake, or indeed 

 arrogant opinion, I might justly call it, that people 

 indulge in, is, that whatever contributes to or forms 

 their pleasures are absolute matters of paramount 

 importance ; thus many a man would hold himself 

 justified on half flogging a dog to death, because he 

 had been the means of preventing a partridge being 

 shot, I quite deny the axiom ; there is no necessity 

 for a partridge being shot to show ofi" a man's good 



G 



