224 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



tute the amusement of coursing for sport. There are 

 as many signs and indications of good or bad scent 

 as there are prognostics as to changes of weather, 

 and they are about as much to be depended upon. 

 By many certain symptoms we form well-founded ex- 

 pectations of a downfall, which are often realized ; but 

 anticipations of rain are not unfrequently as unsubstan- 

 tial as the clouds which had a share in their creation. 

 Thus it is with scent, which may be termed " constant 

 only in inconstancy." When hounds roll upon the grass ; 

 when, in drawing covert, they whip their sterns so that 

 each appears crimson-pointed; when the dew hangs on 

 the thorn ;* when gossamer is floating on the surface of 

 the ground ; when there are harsh, drying winds, or fre- 

 quent storms ; — under any of these, or a hundred other 

 adverse circumstances, we do not hesitate to pronounce 

 the impossibility of any chance of scent, and it is 

 not often that we find ourselves agreeably deceived ; 

 but still, the exceptions are so numerous as to set at 

 nought anything like invariable rule. Even in gossamer 

 — even in storms (which I take to be more certainly 

 fatal to scent than any other state of weather), under 

 a burning sun, or amidst flakes of falling snow, instances 

 are not wanting of scent lying breast high. Philosophy 



' Wlien the clew hangs on the thorn, 

 The huntsman may put up his horn." 



OtD Proverb. 



