122 ALARMING ODOURS. 



and watch human beings passing in the distance, so 

 long as they remain clearly within their field of view, 

 will run off instantly on catching the slightest taint 

 of the scent of man borne to them on the wind. This 

 is so well known to all hunters of experience, and has 

 been so often mentioned in sporting works, that it is 

 not necessary for us to go further than merely to 

 mention it as a matter of ascertained fact. 



Birds and animals however, which have never seen 

 man, have sometimes been found very tarne, and this 

 is generally taken as an indication that they have not, 

 recently at all events, been disturbed by man. There 

 have been observers on the other hand, who remark 

 that such creatures displayed even greater terror on 

 meeting them, than animals that have actually been 

 hunted by man. An explanation of these contradictory 

 reports will probably be found in the fact that in the 

 former instance the observer spoke of animals etc., 

 that had seen, but not smelt man ; whereas in the latter 

 case the frightened creatures had probably been ap- 

 proached from windward, and had therefore probably 

 caught the wind of the terrible stranger, and the dread 

 inspired by the scent of man caused them to scamper 

 off in terror. 



The scent of a merely strange, though harmless beast, 

 it is well known is capable of creating unbounded con- 

 sternation among timid animals or those possessing a 

 highly strung nervous organization. The scent of a 

 camel is thus capable of rendering horses unaccustomed 

 to camels, entirely unmanageable. Thus Herodotus has 

 recorded the complete defeat of the army of the Lydians 

 by the Persians under Cyrus, upon the plains of Sardis, 

 by a stampede created among their cavalry caused by 



