314 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



tlic curiously fine discernment of the liound's 

 nose. 



The observable fact that mostlij militates against 

 scent, in its sporting attributes, is, the gossamer 

 threads upon the grass. I have seen them so thick 

 that the hound's face and nose have been to some 

 extent clogged with them. These gossamer webs 

 have no power over scent, save by intervening con- 

 tact. When pertaining only to the bushes or lower 

 boughs of trees, they do not, as far as I have ob- 

 served, exert any very great detrimental power; 

 but when they cling to herbs and grasses along the 

 ground, it is far worse than when '' the dew-drop 

 hangs on the thorn," and, in fact, with much gos- 

 samer on the ground the huntsman mat/ "■ go home 

 and hang up his horn." However, it was always 

 my rule with my hounds to work them under ad- 

 verse circumstances, as well as favourable ones, and 

 never, so long as I could hit a fox on field or at a 

 hedge, would I be induced to give that fox up to 

 look for another, or to go home. In this way I 

 have '' guessed" a fox to death; and it is in these 

 ways that you make a perfect pack of hounds* 



There is no creature that takes the tone of his 

 temper from his master so much as the hound does 



