Much has been said with regard to the respective merits of Pointer and Setter. Some Sportsmen stoutly man tain that the Pointer is far the superior, whilst others aver that the Setter is greatly to be preferred. Each however, has his distinctive merits. He, who has been the owner of a few good Pointers, and has chanced to be the proprietor of a bad Setter or two, is inclined to believe that the Setter must be the inferior, and vice versa.

This is a wholesale mistake, yet by no means a common yet unfair inference. The Setter is hardier, stands his work better in cold weather, is generally superior as a water-dog, bolder in thick cover and less suspectible to injury by thorns. etc. The Pointer stands the heat better, can travel farther without water, is considered less difficult to break and less headstrong in the field. The one suffers more from the cold, the other from the heat. A Setter appears to forget his training more easily than a Pointer; the only way in which I can account for it, is the mixture of Spaniel to which I believe the former is partly indebted for his origin. If cither can boast of originality of race, I should certainly, (contrary to the general opinion) attribute it to the Pointer, who shows no trace of Spaniel, and cannot have inherited his bird-hunting and stationary instinct from the Foxhound, from whom he is said by Naturalists to have descended. To the Setter appears to belong the stubborn wildness of the Spaniel. The Pointer if not delicately reared or too finely bred, will stand on the average as much work as the Setter.