but as being dogs without voices, so they must hunt close and mute. And when they come upon the haunt of that they hunt, they shall sodainely stop and fall down upon their bellies, and so leisurely creep by degrees to the game till they come within two or three yards thereof, or so neare that they can not press nearer without danger of retrieving. Then shall your Setter stick, and by no persuasion go further till yourself come in and use your pleasure. Now the dogs which are to be made for this pleasure should be the most principall, best, and lustiest Spannyel you can get, both of good scent and good courage, yet young, and as little as may be made acquainteed with much hunting."

There is no doubt that the Setter is a Spaniel, brought by a variety of crosses (or rather, let us say, of careful selections) to the size and form in which we now find him. He is the most national of all our shooting dogs, and certainly has existed for four centuries. His form probably has improved.

Stonehenge, in another part of his works, says that "About the year 1555, a duke of Northumberland trained one (he was writing on the Sussex Spaniel) 'to set birds for the net;' and soon afterward the Setter was produced, either by selection or by crossing the Talbot Hound and Spaniel."

Another noted writer of his day was Laverack, who, writing on "The Setter," states:

"I am of the opinion that all Setters have more or less originally sprung from our various strains of Spaniels, and I believe most breeders of any note agree that the Setter is nothing more than a setting Spaniel. How the Setter attained his sufficiency of point is difficult to account for, and I leave that question to wiser heads than mine to determine. The Setter is said and acknowledged, by authorities of long standing, to be of greater antiquity than the Pointer. If this is true, and I believe it is, the Setter can not at first have been crossed with the Pointer to render him what he is."

If such men as Laverack could not fathom the depths of the mystery surrounding the origin of the Setter dog, the reader will pardon us for candidly admitting our inability to do so. Therefore, let us leave off as we began-there is nothing definitely known as to the origin of the English Setter, which is also true of all the other older breeds of dogs.

We could quote the writings of early authors on the possible origin of all the other old breeds of hunting dogs, but this would be imposing upon your time and patience, inas much as we would have established nothing for a surety at the end, so we will allow our remarks and quotations on the English Setter to answer for the other older breeds of hunting dogs.

Big Game Hunting:

This is a fascinating subject-one upon which we like to write-but we must admit there is intermingled with our feelings a sense of regret, of sadness, because the big game of the United States is really and truly well-nigh a passing memory, an episode in the evolution of our progress as a nation that is almost dead and gone-forever.

But a ray of sunshine and hope gleams through the dark clouds of despair-for there is Canada and Alaska yet--big game's last retreat in North America. We turn, then, hopefully to the North, to the great virgin forests and wasteplaces as yet practically untouched and untrod by man.

When our forefathers came across the seas to this country there was not only game of all kinds in abundance, but there existed an actual over-supply. Subsequently, the different colonies (and later the various States) found it necessary to offer bounties for the pelts of the different species of game animals that proved a source of annoyance to the early settlers in their pursuit of life and liberty.

With the steady encroachments of civilization on our wild, each year they have become less plentiful in many

States, and in the great majority have been utterly exterminated. In a few remaining States some species are found in limited numbers.

Wild animals of the larger species have been forced to take up their abode in retreats that man has not yet penetrated to any marked degree because these regions have

been unsuited to man from a climatic standpoint, being either too dry or too cold. Therefore, Canada and Alaska by reason of their geographical positions are the logical modern homes for game that has been driven steadily northward and westward by man with his potent agency of destruction-modern firearms.

So it is that the frigid regions of the North offer the last haven of safety for our big game animals. The climate in years past has proven a tolerably safe barrier of security for them, but even there they are not safe. Hardy sportsmen and natives annually take a heavy toll from their numbers and it only remains a mere matter of time until they will be extinguished if the strong arm of the law, armed with effective conservation legislation, does not intervene and stay their execution.

We, and our neighbor to the North of us, have already enacted some very humane and essential game laws, in fact we have more laws than we have game left to protect, and what we most need at the present moment is not more game laws, but more rigid enforcement of those already on our statute books. This is the crying need of the hour. I say, down with the game hog and market hunter, and all hail to the true sportsmen, whom these protective measures, properly enforced, will really benefit, as is apparent on the face of the proposition. We claim to be living in a progressive age. Then, let's do something that is really progressive. Suppose we make each sportsman a committee of one to see that no game hogs and pot hunters stay around his "neck of the woods" unpunished by law. "In union there is strength," and "United we stand, Divided we fall,” are two good mottoes for us to go by, for if all we sportsmen "pull together" and introduce a little "team work" into our efforts, the result will be amazing and gratifying.

As the situation now stands, the sportsman of to-day needs must travel afar to these northern or western abodes of big game if he would not court failure. No longer is it possible for those living in a thickly populated community to go out and bag a bear, a moose, a sheep, a caribou, or a deer, as in days of old, without investing a young fortune in equipment and railroad fare. They must hie away to some remote spot whence the larger game has fled. This inconvenience and expense caused the modern sportsman is di

rectly the result of the great slaughter encompassed by the damnable and unspeakable game hog and market hunter. But sooner or later the sportsman will not even be able to locate the game he desires by these long trips taken at so much time and expense, for the game hog and market hunter are right on the job all the time, slaughtering and trapping the noble wild creatures in their distant haunts and robbing you of your share of nature's stores. It is easily seen what condition this will eventually bring about. It doesn't take a pessimist to see the end of the beginning in this case. The hand-writing appears on the wall, and it spells nothing less than total extinction in a few more years, if this needless and cruel slaughter is not brought to a halt. I have already pointed out my idea of how to effect this halt -not by enacting more game laws, but by rigidly and diligently enforcing those we already have enacted. That is the only practical solution to the problem, so far as I am able to see.

As to the bear, some folks make the claim he does not deserve protection, accusing him of pilfering the farmer's pigsties, and placing numberless other misdemeanors at his door.

If those making these accusations against bruin will but take the trouble to thoroughly investigate each instance of this kind, they will find that it is not the bear who is to blame for these thefts but the more sly and cunning thief, the sneaking mountain lion. The latter will probably effect the slaughter, devour all he wants of the kill, which, let us presume is a pig, and then bruin will come along, get a scent of fresh meat, go and finish what the lion left, and then Mr. Farmer will come out next morning, see the huge bear tracks, cuss the innocent bear, and perhaps organize a posse of neighbors to help find and kill him for a crime for which the mountain lion, and not he, is responsible. Every student of nature knows a bear will not ordinarily molest any animal, with the exception of small rodents and insects, un