One of the most knowing dogs of this breed, belonging to a favourite servant, who being carpenter and duck-shooter for his master, Mr. Fielding Lewis, on James River, deserves to be mentioned, though we regret not to have his name. His owner could at any time send him home from the woods for any tool in his " chest." He would give him the key and tell him to go home and bring his saw, for instance. The carpenter's wife would open the chest and the dog pick out and carry the tool he was sent for. He would even go home at command, and take from the corner a " chunk of fire," when he could pull out one that he could carry without burning himself, and practised that duty commonly, until Mr. Lewis saw him one day going with it on a path which had led through the barn-yard, and so forbid him ever being ordered again on that hazardous service.

The best living specimen of her stock, probably, is Drake, a sorrel-coloured dog, with yellow eyes, now aged, the property of Mr. Harrison, of Baltimore, and pronounced by Mr. Thorndike, high authority in such cases, the best dog he ever saw. The portrait at the head of this sketch is said to represent his form. All advantage should be taken, while yet he lives, to preserve his blood, when subjects worthy of his embraces can be found.

In their descendants, even to the present remote generation, the fine qualities of the original pair are conspicuously preserved, in spite of occasional stains of inferior blood. As public morals are influenced by forms of government, and the principles and manners of men in high authority; and the coat of wool-bearing animals is affected by food and climate, so local wants and circumstances will modify the breeds of dogs. And no theatre, it will be admitted, can excel that of the Chesapeake and its noble tributaries, for the developement of the high qualities of the water-dog. He of Newfoundland, transported there, finds himself, as it were, in his native element.

It is, by the by, but an act of justice to all that tidewater portion of Virginia and Maryland, - the cradle of all the sons to whom they owe their ancient renown, - to protest, en passant, that while no district on the habitable globe excels it for excellence and variety of natural productions, whether of fruit or vegetable, fish or fowl, our naturalists have, for the most part, passed it by as if it were a desert waste, or lagoon, exhaling the malaria of the Pontine marshes. Even our birds, whether of land or water, of brilliant plumage or melodious song, that claim our rivers and forests as their native home, or favourite resort, attaining therein their highest perfection, have been either overlooked, or, if described, associated with other localities, in themselves less attractive and bountiful, and far less congenial to these charming inhabitants of our woods and waters. But, to return to the water-dog. There is one now (Leo) at Maxwell's Point, on the Gunpowder River, in Maryland, a descendant of Sailor, through a slut pup of his, (given to Mr. Ricketts' father by Doctor A. Thomas,) who deserves to be named as a noble specimen of his tribe; for, he can "swim as far, dive as deep, stay down as long, and come up as dry," as any dog in all Newfoundland. Leo is the property, - we should rather say, the companion and friend, - of Mr. Ricketts "of that ilk;" himself every inch a sportsman, one who, as to every game-bird that "nature hath taught to dip its wing in water," knows where to find, how to kill, and, what's more, how to cook and eat it as a gentleman should 1 But it's of his dog we would be speaking. Leo stands in height from 20 to 22 inches; black, with a small white spot in his breast, and a little white on each foot; his eyes, again, yellow ! His form is something after the model of the Setter, without his feathery tail, or the smooth one of the Pointer; not so deep in the chest as the Setter; but rounder in his body, and larger in the neck; with his ear smaller, and more set up, and the tips of them turning down. His hair not exactly long,.yet further from being short; with a woolly under-jacket to protect his skin from the water; for he has often to make his way through the ice. Such is the personnel of Leo - a dog "Whose honest heart is still his master's own, Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone."

Many anecdotes might be related in proof of his reasoning powers; but we have room only to add, in general terms, that he comes fully up to the tine of his duty. Of how few bipeds can we say as much? When ducks are passing over he takes his stand with his master, his fore feet resting on the blind, and, still as a mouse, he watches not the gun, nor any thing but the game as it approaches; and listening to hear the shot strike, the moment a duck is seen to falter in its flight, as it falls, the good dog plunges in the river like a ball from a cannon, and, from whatever distance, brings the duck and lays it at the feet of his master. He has been known to bring out as many as three at a time; and has the sagacity, when some are only crippled, and in danger of being lost, to give to them first a finishing grip, leaving such as are stone dead to be secured at leisure. When a duck dives to escape him, it is curious to see how he will stand erect, head and shoulders, out of water, watching in all directions for its reappearance. Such are the offices, such the achievements of the high-bred water-dog of the Chesapeake Bay, and the noble estuaries that commingle in its bosom.

On breaking the water-dog, little need be said; for, like Dogberry's reading and writing, his education "comes by nature." In his infancy he may be taught to bring a glove and lay it down at your feet as he should do; and, by practice, the comprehension and fulfilment of his various duties will soon follow. He will be found, with judicious encouragement and exercise of authority, more docile than a child. They have been known, at four months old, to fetch a duck; but, lest the constitution be impaired, he should not be put too early at hard service.

As to Maxwells Point! there is some consolation in knowing that in this wide world of ours, abounding so much - in debt and cold water, - there is yet one point of land left where gentlemen can meet gentlemen, to go forth at early dawn, with each his fine "stub" or "wire twist" John or Jo Manton, of inch calibre, and four feet three inches in the barrel; and if among them any dispute happen about whose duck it is, a challenge is passed, and promptly accepted, to meet and settle all differences across the table that afternoon, with implements that, though they go off with a pop; serve only, for the moment, to raise the spirits of the parties, and do no damage that is not soon cured with a few doses of Johnston's Sherry, or Doctor Lee's "ether Mad."

P. S. How to cook a canvass-back - Take it, as soon after the "leaden messenger" brings it down, as possible, even while it is yet warm, if it can be so, and cook it in a "tin kitchen," turning and basting it frequently with a gravy, composed in the bottom of the oven, with a little water and a grain of salt, and its own drippings. The fire should be a brisk one, (hickory the best,) so that it may be done "to a turn" in twenty-five, or at most thirty minutes. Serve it up immediately, in its own gravy, with a dish of nice, well-boiled (and then fried) milk-white hominy; and then, if it may so happen, with Cadwallader's old "butler" at your elbow, if such fare do not "Raze out the written troubles of the brain," and dispose the partaker " to love his neighbour as himself," and thank Providence for all his bounties, "Oh bear him to some distant shore, Some solitary cell, Where none bat savage monsters roar, Where love ne'er deigns to dwell,"

In the midst of such temptations, even the incomparable Willard, of the City Hotel, who never was known to forget any thing, might be excused for - forgetting himself.