MMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 353 



Now for my comment on this event. Had no one seen this fox, it is 

 evident he would not have been hunted a yard beyond the cover, because 

 the hounds had a fair chance given them to do so, over two fields, and 

 those favourable ones for scent; the game was not two minutes a-head, 

 neither were the hounds hurried nor blown when laid on. The hunts- 

 man would naturally have turned back in despair. But the fact was, as 

 I shall presently show, there was not an atom of scent that day^ doivn 

 wind, although the best mounted man, or hardest rider in Scotland, 

 would not deserve a better than these hounds had when they took the 

 scent in the furrow, up luind; and had it not been for the cover, at 

 the end of two miles, no fox could have stood their pace many minutes 

 longer. 



Now then for the proof of this assertion, respecting one among the 

 many phenomena of scent. It happened that I again viewed the fox 

 away from the cover into which we had run him, and again gave Mr. 

 Dalyell the office. To make the matter still more clear, the fox had 

 gone down a large grass field, close under the wall ; nevertheless, although 

 the pack actually trod in his very pad-steps, not a hound spoke until they 

 had got to the bottom of the enclosure, when they hunted him slowly, 

 in a small patch of gorse, but were never able to get up to him, as he 

 continued going down wind. If ever I venture to write on scent, I 

 shall have something to say on this especial circumstance, not only 

 because I have at times seen hounds run so hard down wind, but from 

 some experiments I have made on the effect of a current of air, in con- 

 veying certain odours. Mr. Dalyell mounted me this day on Jack 

 Orville. 



There is one day's hunting with these hounds of which I find no 



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