138 A Book of the Snipe. 



on the humour of the snipe, whether drowsy 

 or alert and fearful, and also on the powers 

 of your dog's nose, exhibiting possibly extra- 

 ordinary differences of distance on the several 

 days of the week. I may safely say that I 

 have seen a single snipe marked by both 

 pointer and setter at far greater ranges than 

 I ever witnessed with a covey of partridges 

 ''jugging" in turnips or long grass, though 

 "• Stonehenge," curiously enough, describes 

 the effluvium of a snipe as "weak." It is 

 not, of course, as heavy as that emanating 

 from the door of Rimmel's shop ; but it is 

 plainly so peculiar, and, when once got 

 accustomed to, so fascinating to the doggy 

 olfactory nerves, that it can produce the most 

 defined catalepsy (if that theory of the path- 

 ognomy of pointing be correct) at distances 

 out of all proportion to the size of the small 

 object to which it belongs. I have previously 

 given some hints on the little understood 

 properties of scent. I have only to add the 

 fact, without pretending to know the reason, 

 that it appears to be far more penetrating 



