ABSENCE OF SCENT IN YOUNG ANIMALS. I I 7 



We allude, among other things, to the absence of 

 scent, in the case of the young of wild animals, during 

 that helpless period before they have grown strong 

 enough to be able to take care of themselves. The 

 circumstances are so well attested by gentlemen of 

 such known truthfulness and experience, that they can 

 hardly be doubtful, even were there no corroborative 

 facts which are within the reach of all who choose to 

 observe, and give thought to these and other matters 

 of a similar kind. 



" The young (of wild game animals, says Captain Marcy, 

 U.S.A.) gives out no scent, until it is sufficiently grown to 

 take care of itself, and instinct teaches the mother that this 

 wise provision of nature to preserve the helpless little one, 

 will be defeated if she remains with it, as her tracks (i.e. 

 scent) cannot be concealed. She therefore hides her fawn in 

 the grass where it is almost impossible to see it even when 

 very near it, and goes off to some neighbouring thicket within 

 call, and makes her bed alone." * 



This book, we may add was the recognized official 

 handbook for overland expeditions through the prairies 

 of the Far West, published by authority of the United 

 States War Department; and the writer of it was an 

 officer with great experience in all that concerned wild 

 life in the Far West in his time. Nowhere, it may be 

 very confidently asserted, were the habits and nature 

 of the wild game subject to more acute observation 

 than among the Indians, the white trappers and 

 professional hunters who at that time roamed over these 

 then unknown wildernesses of practically boundless 

 extent. 



* The Prairie Traveller, by Captain Marcy, U.S.A., New York 

 l8 59> (Published by authority of the U.S. War Department). 



