SCENT BORNE UPON THE WIND. 115 



strange unknown aroma " showed even more terror 

 than wild animals generally do. " * 



These considerations naturally lead us to the important 

 subject of the " wind " in stalking wild and wary game 

 animals. After what we have already said upon this 

 subject, it must be evident that the odour of man if 

 carried by the wind to the sensitive noses of game, 

 at once starts them off in terror, and thus puts all 

 chance of getting a shot at them out of the question. 

 The universal experiences of sportsmen are unanimous 

 in recognizing this fact. 



But beyond the bare certainty that animals can detect 

 the presence of man by their sense of smell, at a great 

 distance, we fear little is known of a very precise 

 nature. Both the distance at which this scent can be 

 detected by game, and the conditions under which it 

 is conveyed by the atmosphere, are purely matters of 

 conjecture, upon which very little is really known, and 

 many exaggerated accounts have from time to time 

 been published about it. It is certain however, that 

 under special conditions of wind and weather, animals 

 with highly developed senses of this kind may, and 

 can, scent man at very great distances. 



In the Highlands of Scotland for instance, it is 

 generally held that under favourable circumstances 

 deer can wind a man on the hills, a mile away ; and 

 Mr. Grimble in his book on Deer-Stalking there, asserts 

 that he saw deer in a gale ; take the wind of a man and 

 a pony, quite a mile and a half away, and he goes on to 

 say, that " so keen is their sense of smell, that for fully an 



* The Shores of the Polar Sea, by Dr. Edwd. E. L. Moss, Surgeon 

 of H.M.S. Alert, publ. 1878, p. 26 (a splendidly illustrated folio 

 volume). 



