210 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



substitute 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 expecta- 

 tions of a downfall, which are often realized ; but 

 anticipations of rain are not unfrequently as unsub- 

 stantial as the clouds which had a share in their crea- 

 tion. 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 frequent 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 de- 

 ceived ; 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 cer- 

 tainly 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 is at fault in any attempt to define the 

 causes ; it is useless to speculate on probabilities, or 



* " When the dew hangs on the thorn, 

 The huntsman may put up his horn." 



Old Proverb. 



