The Columbia Blacktail 243 



was a little too fast for me. Before that they 

 would point as well as any dogs on birds; the 

 setter just as if on birds, but with nose far higher, 

 the hound by sitting up on his haunches and 

 looking around at me and tossing his nose high 

 in air, the terrier by rising much of the time on 

 his hind legs and sniffing high in air. The first 

 two I could trust a hundred yards ahead with per- 

 fect safety. The terrier I kept mostly at heel, 

 but in another year he would have been as safe 

 to trust ahead as the others. 



The bird dog seems best adapted for this pur- 

 pose because more likely to take the wind rather 

 than the foot-scent. But the work of " a slow- 

 track dog " is quite as effective in most cases and 

 just as interesting. He is generally some old 

 hound or combination of hound and mongrel that 

 smells his way across bushes, grass, and weeds, 

 even of the dryest, in a manner quite marvellous. 

 The way he can smell the touch of a deer's leg 

 against a single spear of grass when the track 

 shows you that the deer passed hours before, is as 

 interesting as any of the sights of the field. With 

 such dogs you can enjoy hunting almost as well 

 without the rifle as with one. No training seems 

 required except to let the dog know what you 

 want by ignoring all other game and keeping 

 him absolutely at heel until he has outgrown the 

 temptation to chase anything. 



