ThE NOBLE SCIENCE. 225 



is at fault in any attempt to define the causes; it is 

 useless to speculate on probabilities, or take anything 

 for granted, when we know that scent may vary with 

 the fleeting moments — that it changes with the soil, 

 and that no one can speak positively to the point till 

 a fox is found, and hounds have had a fair chance of 

 settling to a scent, if it exist. It is to be remarked, 

 that when hounds go soberly to covert, with their 

 mouths fast closed, instead of staring about them, and 

 shewing disposition to frohc — when, in the place of bois- 

 terous winds and lowering storms, we have high clouds 

 with cool and gentle zephyrs — when no white frost has 

 rendered the surface of the earth treacherous and adhe- 

 sive — above all, when the quicksilver in the barometer 

 is on the ascendant, we may fairly hope for scent ; but 

 we must not be too confident — not unduly elated by 

 such auspices, or dejected by the reverse. The sine qua 

 non of scent must be considered, more or less, a matter 

 of chance ; but it may not be uninteresting to consider 

 how, and in what manner, it is yielded by the fox in 

 chase. I have been led into a notice of this subject by 

 the propagation of such an idea, as that the scent is 

 derived, not from the body or breath, but from the pad 

 alone. Mr. Smith has industriously endeavoured to 

 prove such assertion by the very means which, in my 

 humble opinion, afford the strongest confirmation of 

 the contrary. There is, perhaps, no greater mistake 

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