you
will make him understand you _quickly_. You must expect that your young
dog will for some time make sad mistakes in his range;--but be not
discouraged. Doubtless there is no one thing,--I was going to say, that
there are no dozen things,--in the whole art of dog-breaking, which are so
difficult to attain, or which exact so much labor, as a high,
well-confirmed, systematic range. Nature will not assist you--you must do
it all yourself; but in recompense there is nothing so advantageous when
it is at length acquired. It will abundantly repay months of persevering
exertion. It constitutes the grand criterion of true excellence. Its
attainment makes a dog of inferior nose and action far superior to one of
much greater natural qualifications, who may be tomfooling about,
galloping backwards and forwards, sometimes over identically the same
ground, quite uselessly exerting his travelling powers; now and then,
indeed, arrested by the suspicion of a haunt, which he is not experienced
enough, or sufficiently taught, to turn to good account,--and occasionally
brought to a stiff point on birds accidentally found right under his nose.
It is undeniable, _coeteris paribus_, that the dog who hunts his ground
most according to rule must in the end find most game.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] In ordinary seasons immediately after St. Valentine's Day--before the
birds have made their nests. The first of September is the commencement of
partridge shooting in England, as the 26th of Oct. and the 1st of Nov. are
generally in America for quail.

All the breaking for partridge in this work, is applicable and must be
referred to quail in America. Grouse shooting on the moors in England is
applicable to our prairie shooting, and pheasant shooting to our ruffed
grouse shooting, when that may be had. The reader must, therefore,
transfer the months and seasons accordingly.--H.W.H.

[22] "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.

[23] 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 g