86 BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 



The pointer's natural incentive to hunt for game no 

 doubt is to eat it, and if he sees another stop and 

 point he knows the other winds game ; his natural 

 impulse would be to get up to him to share in 

 the spoil, not to stand still to let him get the 

 lion's, or whole share. Flogging makes him back 

 steadily, that is flogging if he does not do so, and, 

 in truth, pointers get plenty of this discipline, and 

 that often in a most unmerciful way ; and as if that 

 was not enough, there are other devices more cruel 

 still. I have heard of a slight but strong and very 

 long cord being tied to the tenderest part of the 

 animal's anatomy, and if he did not immediately 

 attend to the keeper's command, who held the end of 

 it, the poor brute got a snatch that pulled him head 

 over heels ; if this is not a diabolical invention and 

 cruelty, I know not what is. 



If doing all that is required of a pointer was 

 natural to him, he would of course do it naturally, but 

 as he does not, there is no use in denying the plain 

 fact — that the dog is more or less cruelly treated as 

 he may be more or less timid, obedient, or sensible, 



