THE POINTER. 191 
The first of these varieties is faulty, for the same 
reason as the old Spanish dog; they do not get over the 
ground with sufficient rapidity to allow of a reasonable 
bag being made in reasonable time; they are apt to knock 
up, owing to their weight and faulty structure, and they 
are painfully ugly to behold. 
The second fails from the natural consequences of over 
delicacy ; his coat is too fine, he cannot endure cold or wet, 
he cannot face the lightest covert, he cannot do half a 
day’s work in proper form. If hunted alone, he will find 
little or no game, if in company with other dogs, he will do 
the backing to their pointing, but no more. He is a suffi- 
ciently worthless dog any where, but in America particu- 
larly worthless, because particularly unfit for those very 
specialities of work which he should be particularly fitted 
to perform—covert-shooting and snipe-shooting. For the 
former of these purposes the pointer is, I may say, never 
used in the British Isles; for the latter, when old and 
steady, he is generally preferred. 
The third variety is liable to two objections; he is apt 
to stoop too much, and puzzle for his scent on the ground, 
hound-fashion, instead of drawing handsomely with his head 
high; and he is inclined to run in and chase, especially 
on hares and rabbits, from which vice it is frequently. very 
difficult to break him. 
The best form of the pointer is the medium between 
the first two varieties; and a dog of this kind, of the 
proper shape and style, well bred, well broken, and well 
hunted, will be found to do his work for courage, stout- 
ness, scent, and endurance of heat and thirst, as well as, if 
