CHAPTER XVIII 
Tue Pointer 
——|HE more we have read on the subject of early dogs in 
England, and have thought over and studied the question 
of the introduction of the pointer, the more convinced 
are we that the pointer was simply evolved from a dog 
==) in use in England for somewhat similar work, just as 
the setter was developed from the setting spaniel. We are inclined to 
the opinion that outside of hounds for the chase, dogs for field sports at 
or about 1650 were divided up in this manner. A dog was used to find 
deer and animals, for the chase and coursing, and this was a dog of the 
hound variety; another was the spaniel, used to spring feathered game for 
the hawk; another was the setting spaniel for the net; and then came the 
water spaniel for wild-fowl shooting. At this stage we must once more 
consider the development of the gun, as we did in connection with the 
beginning of the setter in a previous chapter. We now refer the reader 
to the illustration of wild-duck shooting, in which it will be well to note the 
smooth dog as well as the spaniel. The weapon in use is the matchlock. 
It will be observed that the gun is used with a rest to steady the aim during 
the slow process of firing the gun. In another of the same series of prints, 
that of fox hunting in an enclosure of nets, one of the sportsmen is firing 
his matchlock held against a tree, and has knocked over a running fox, 
showing that the process of shooting was developing. And on another of 
these prints there are men using crossbows, the missile weapons referred 
to by Luther when he wrote of having gone on some sporting expedition. 
Our collection of these quaint prints consists of those showing the chase or 
capture of the wolf, boar, deer, hare, rabbit, badger, porcupine, and duck 
shooting and hawking. It being evident that they were part of a series of 
sporting representations, we persevered in a search for more and had the 
good fortune, when looking for another book in the Lenox Library, to come 
across the complete set of these reproductions of paintings by Joannes 
Strada or Stradano (Jan van der Straet), which were engraved by Philip 
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