306 . FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



I have known a brilliant scent on a hot, dry 

 clay, when my foxhoimds could run even in a cloud 

 of dust ; I have known a holding scent in a high 

 wind, and a scent in snow and hard rain, a scent 

 in a beautifully mild, still, damp day, and no scent 

 at all occasionally on all those days thus mentioned ; 

 so to none is a certainty of scent attached. 



The few things that I have been able to mark as 

 decidedly militating against the chance of a scent, 

 are these. 



Gossamer webs when Jixed^ and holding thickly 

 across the face of the felds; rain in the air, 

 but not come down, and snow lying yet in the 

 ditches, that the thaw has not had warmth 

 enough to melt away. These few things I have 

 known to tell against scent in many remarkable 

 instances; but of them all, I should say that the 

 worst symj^tom of the lot is the abundance of 

 the gossamer web. 



In all weathers, and at all times and seasons, I 

 have known scents and no scents, and, on looking 

 out of my window in the morning, I never could 

 attempt to say, with the slightest aj^proach to 

 certainty, that hounds would run, or that '^it was 

 a fine huntin,i>' day." 



