The Pointer 283 



of Barlow in England, some of which we have already used, illustrating 

 a slightly earlier period, about 1640-60, but showing no guns. So far 

 we have not succeeded in getting any prints to cover the period between 

 1680 and 1700, but when we do we anticipate finding a dog doing duty 

 in pointing game in England quite as early as he is to be found on the 

 Continent. This dog we predict will be the dog of hound type that had 

 been used up to that time for finding game for coursing — a dog that either 

 naturally or by training found and pointed the quarry and stood when 

 so doing, so as to be seen. When sportsmen got a gun so improved as to 

 admit of shooting flying as a regular and not as occasional practice, which 

 we consider was possible as early as 1680, they thereupon made use of 

 this dog, that had the faculty of locating game and stood still in place of 

 rushing on as the spaniel did to put up the game. 



The sportsman had to get this old-fashioned weapon ready, had to 

 see that the priming was right and lift the lid of the pan holding the pow- 

 der, before advancing to shoot the game, and a dog that would stand still 

 was necessary. They gave to this dog a name which indicated what he 

 did — point to where the game was. Had he come from abroad, is it not 

 likely he would have come with his foreign name ? The same kind of 

 dog was to be found all over eastern Europe, and under various renderings 

 of brach is still used as we use the pointer. We have no belief that the 

 "pointer" came originally from Portugal or Spain, and was not known 

 in England prior to dogs being so imported. If such had been the case 

 we feel certain that the new dog would have had a somewhat similar name 

 to what he had in his own country, in place of which the importation was 

 known as the Spanish pointer. That to our mind is another indication 

 that the pointer was already an English dog and the foreigner was recog- 

 nised as a variety. 



Let us take a similar case in this country. For nearly one hundred 

 years there have been dogs called bloodhounds in America. There were 

 also Cuban bloodhounds, for some of them were imported to Jamaica at 

 the time of the Maroon War. About twenty years ago some bloodhounds 

 were imported from England, and we gave them, and still give them, the 

 name of English bloodhounds. Undoubtedly the American bloodhound, 

 which is merely a hound, came from the same original stock of black-and- 

 tan hounds which produced the English variety, but they were bred along 

 different lines and their type varied. So with the pointer they produced 



