SCENT AND S^rETJ. CONTRASTED. 3 09 



distinguisli any sort of smell or scent ; but, though 

 the ^^form" was deeply sheltered by the grass, 

 warm, and well imprinted on the ground, there 

 was no sort of trace of the occupant that had 

 so lately left distinguishable to the human faculty 

 of smell. Under such circumstances, when the 

 harriers Avere brought to the spot, at times they 

 would race away in full cry and at full speed ; 

 then on other occasions, if it was what is com- 

 monly called '^ a bad scenting-day," even under 

 that adverse circumstance, the hounds still could 

 slowly hunt the foot of the hare, whose four feet, 

 breath, and whole body, after the form had been 

 held by the creature, perhaps from break of day 

 till noon, afforded to man not the slightest indi- 

 cation of her recent presence. 



If the scent of the creature really depended on 

 the commonly accepted term ^' smell," then, faint 

 as the smell of a hare is, and must be, surely, to 

 use a strong expression, a ^^ stink " of any filthy 

 kind must overpower it. But no such thing is 

 the case. Other effluvia, however strong and 

 noxious, have not tlie slightest power to intervene 

 between the nose of a hound and the scent of 

 the creature he is running ; that is to say, if the 



