232 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



are running across an open country, downs, and such 

 like, in very windy weather, it cannot be supposed that 

 the scent would remain stationary, but that it would be 

 scattered by the wind, and that it arises from the touch , 

 that is, the pad of the fox touching the ground" This, 

 again, to my erring judgment, seems to prove the 

 reverse of his own proposition. If the scent depended 

 only upon those parts of the soil, or herbage, which had 

 been touched, is it likely that it would be carried so far 

 from these particular substances, as to serve twenty 

 yards wide of the line, which is frequently the case? 

 Who has not seen, if he be an observer, hounds running 

 harder upon the other side of a hedge-row, not the 

 side on which the fox passed, than those which are actu- 

 ally on the hue ? Does not this prove, that the particles 

 of scent which have emanated from the body of the ani- 

 mal, have been floating on the air — that if long grass, 

 or bushes, appear to yield strengthening evidence of the 

 touch, it is because 



" To every shrub the warm effluvia cling, 

 Hang on the grass, impregnate earth and skies." 



My firm belief is, that there is always a pad scent — 

 always a certain degree of scent from the pad, retained 

 by all ground, more or less susceptible of the impression 

 — that the duration of this scent depends upon the kind 

 of soil, and its evaporations. Were it not for this scent, 

 there would often be none whatever, which is actually 



