HUNTING IN INDIA. 243 



hands had said that foxhounds would never do any 

 good in Rajputana. 



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, incom- 

 prehensible, incontrollable phenomenon. ' Constant 

 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 

 certain will affect scent in a certain way. For in- 

 stance, who ever knew a good scent go with a falling 

 barometer ? How rarely, again, scent is bad on a 

 " seasonable " day. But India has hardly any 

 variations of climate, and the only atmospheric effect 

 I ever noticed there was that scent was invariably 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 endeavours could I ever 

 induce one hound to own the line again. 



The next two evenings I went out I experienced a 

 total want of scent, so I determined to try a morning. 

 Accordingly the van was sent on to a village some 

 four miles off where there was a very large acreage of 

 cotton. Hounds soon found, but it was impossible for 

 a long time to get the jack to face the open. At last 



* " Handley Cross," chap, xxxiii., p. 267, original edition. 



R 2 



