SCENT AND SMELL CONTRASTED. 327 



deer, and returned to where tliey had for a time 

 put her down. According to this fact, it would 

 seem that the nose of a hound can tell what is, 

 on the shoulders of a man, without any part of 

 whatever is carried touching the ground. 



Scent will arise from a deer that has heen 

 couched in the lair for hours, and reach the nose 

 of a bloodhound without bringing the hound to 

 the S23ot where the creature lies. The efxhalation, 

 or what we term scent, may float on some current 

 of air, be strong enough to attract the nose of the 

 hound, and yet, though it unmistakably assures 

 him that a deer is near, it is. not of that peculiar 

 kind of strength to which he will speak or fling 

 his tongue. I have seen Druid become thus 

 sure of the near a^^proximation of a doe over 

 and over again, and yet not ho able cither to 

 come on her foot, or on her in her lair, for more 

 than an hour. During that time, as before nar- 

 rated, he came back several times to the spot 

 for the tell-tale air whence he had first detected 

 the' exhalation, and at which spot, or l)y which 

 current of air alone, he gained the information. 

 There is nothing so uncertain, as I have said 

 before, in this uncertain world, as scent, — that is, 



