[19] If a retriever has the opportunity, while prowling about, of gnawing hare or rabbit-skins thrown aside by a slovenly cook, it will not be unnatural in him, when he is hungry, to wish to appropriate to himself the hide, if not the interior of the animals he is lifting.
[20] This reasoning obviously does not apply to the retrievers employed in those battues where rapid slaughter is “the order of the day,”—where the sportsmen do not condescend to charge their own guns, but are constantly supplied with relays of loaded arms.
[21] I once had a pointer pup whose dam was broken in (after a fashion) and regularly shot to when seven months old. Without injury to her constitution, she could not have been hunted for more than an hour or two at a time. She ought not to have been taken to the held for regular use until fully a year old.
[22] I often shoot over a setter bitch (belonging to one of my relations) that has capital feet, but is very defective across the loins. She is extremely fast, and a brilliant performer for half a day; but she then shuts up completely. A little rest, however, soon brings her round for another half day’s brilliant work. Unless a dog is particularly light in body, bad feet quickly scald upon heath or stubble, and they are longer getting round, than is a bad loined dog in recovering from a day’s fatigue.
[23] A trick that historical research probably would show to have been devised in a conclave of house-maids, and which was constantly performed by one of my oldest acquaintances, “Little-brush,” a worthy son of the “Dearest-of-men,” as he used to be called by his fond mistress, who, I need not say, had no children of her own on whom to lavish her caresses.
[24] It is astonishing what myriads of fleas are bred in the sand in many hot countries. When walking along some of the roads during the spring, numbers of the little creatures will pay you the compliment of attaching themselves to your dress and person. At Bermuda they so regularly make their appearance with the whales, that the Niggers think there must be some intimate, however mysterious, connexion between the two. In India the natives expel the intruders from their houses by strewing fresh saffron leaves about the rooms; and a decoction from these said leaves, applied liberally to a dog’s coat, rids him of the unwelcome visitors, however numerous. I have read that the same good effect will be produced if his hair be well wetted with a solution of the gum of the sloe-tree in water. Fourteen grains of the gum to one quart of water.
The capture of the whale, by-the-bye, at Bermuda, affords sport as exciting as it is profitable. The fish are struck within sight of the Islands, and as the water is shoal, owing to sandbanks, a short line is employed. By this line the stricken animal tows the harpooner’s boat along with fearful rapidity, an immense wave curling far above the high bow. The flesh of the young whale is excellent,—very like veal,—and with the black population the whaling season is one of great feasting and enjoyment. By a colonial law no charge can be made for the flesh of the fish. Every comer has a right to carry off as much of the meat as he may require, but no blubber. On a whale being killed, a well-known signal, hoisted at the several look-out posts, quickly informs the coloured inhabitants of the successful seizure, and whether it has been effected at the north or south side. Numerous claimants then hurry off, on foot or in boat, to secure a sufficiency for several days’ consumption, of a food they prize far more than beef or mutton. What is not immediately used is cut into strips, and dried in the sun.
[25] In ordinary seasons immediately after St. Valentine’s Day,—before the birds have made their nests.
[26] “Leeward”—a nautical phrase—here meaning the side towards which the wind blows from the field. If you entered elsewhere, the dog while ranging would be tempted, from the natural bearing of his nose towards the wind, to come back upon you, making his first turn inwards instead of outwards.
[27] But, independently of these obvious reasons, scent is affected by causes into the nature of which none of us can penetrate. There is a contrariety in it that ever has puzzled, and apparently ever will puzzle, the most observant sportsman (whether a lover of the chase or gun), and therefore, in ignorance of the doubtless immutable, though to us inexplicable, laws by which it is regulated, we are contented to call it “capricious.” Immediately before heavy rain there frequently is none. It is undeniable that moisture will at one time destroy it,—at another bring it. That on certain days—in slight frost, for instance,—setters will recognise it better than pointers, and, on the other hand, that the nose of the latter will prove far superior after a long continuance of dry weather, and this even when the setter has been furnished with abundance of water,—which circumstance pleads in favour of hunting pointers and setters together. The argument against it, is the usual inequality of their pace, and, to the eye of some sportsmen, the want of harmony in their appearance. Should not this uncertainty respecting the recognition of scent teach us not to continue hunting a good dog who is frequently making mistakes, but rather to keep him at “heel” for an hour or two? He will consider it a kind of punishment, and be doubly careful when next enlarged. Moreover, he may be slightly feverish from overwork, or he may have come in contact with some impurity,—in either of which cases his nose would be temporarily out of order.