HUNTING IN THE INDIES 217 



then a head, being generally all that is to be seen. 

 The jack slipped away into an adjoining patch, and 

 then into a nullah (water-course), and thus got away 

 without being viewed. Seeing the leading hounds 

 carry a line out of the cotton, I got out my horn, 

 and was delighted to find the pack very handy. 

 They literally flew to the horn, and settling down, 

 raced across the open. In ten minutes they ran 

 into the jack, which was a half-grown cub. I was 

 delighted with this result, for many old hands had 

 said that fox-hounds would never do any good in 

 Hajputana. 



But I had yet to learn that unaccountable as scent 

 is in England, it is even more so in India. " Oh, 

 that weary scent," exclaims the immortal Jorrocks 

 in his second lecture on hunting, " that weary, in- 

 comprehensible, incontrollable phenomenon. ' Con- 

 stant only in its inconstancy,' as the able hauthor 

 of the noble science well said. Believe me my 

 beloved 'earers, there's nothing so queer as scent, 

 'cept a woman." ^ But incomprehensible as scent is 

 in England, it is infinitely more so in India. In 

 England there are certain conditions of weather 

 which we feel sure will affect scent in a certain 

 way. For instance, who ever knew a good scent go 

 with a falling barometer ? How rarely, again, scent 

 is bad on a " reasonable" day. But India has hardly 

 any variations of climate, and the only atmospheric 

 effect I ever noticed there was that scent was in- 

 variably bad when the ground was damp after a 

 shower, when it might be expected to be best. I 

 have known hounds run at top speed for half an 

 hour, and then check ; and not by the most patient 

 1 Handley CrosSy chap, xxxiii. p. 267, original edition. 



