190 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
land and America, and deservedly so; for, although his 
admirable powers of scent, not surpassed by those of any 
animal, and his great tractability, are undeniable points in 
his favor, he is an ungainly, misshapen creature, a slow- 
traveller, an awkward mover; and, though large-limbed, 
strongly-boned, and to an unpractised eye powerfully made, 
is for the most part so ill put together and slackly coupled, 
that he is incapable of long and severe work, except ata 
foot’s pace. 
The improved English pointer, which is the dog gen- 
erally in use under the name of pointer, is a cross of the 
original Spanish dog with the fox-hound, or the greyhound, 
or both—the union of the two affording probably the best 
existing form. There are now numerous subvarieties, in 
the shape of distinct families, raised and maintained by 
different amateurs in the British Islands and elsewhere, 
recognized apart by particular characteristics of form, 
color, and style; which characteristic peculiarities they 
transmit with the blood, all springing from some cross of 
the Spanish dog with some of the other strains indicated 
above, yet sufficiently remote from the original stock to 
allow of inter-breeding, without any danger of deteriora- 
tion from in-breeding, as it is termed, or incestuous breed- 
ing, so as to obviate all necessity of farther intermixture 
of foreign blood, as of the various hounds mentioned above. 
Of these English varieties, some are nearly as coarse, 
heavy-shouldered, and slow as the old Spanish pointers; 
some are almost as slender, thin-flanked, and whip-sterned 
as the greyhound ; and some with deeply feathered sterns 
and sharp noses, showing a strong cross of the fox-hound. 
