212 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



mences lii.s observations on scent, after the account of 

 a famous run which he attributes to the circumstance of 

 a fox having luckily found the earth stopped that he had 

 tried at starting. He proceeds to say, '' It will, pro- 

 bably, be noticed, that, in the above run, the scent was 

 good, which, of course, a fox must be aware of, as he lives 

 by hunting ; and this was, prohohly, the cause of liis 

 trying to go to ground." I have before alluded to what 

 appears to me another most mistaken notion, or, at all 

 events, one which is not so supported as to have a claim 

 to general credence. I then stated some reasons for 

 believing a fox (in choice of ground, &c.) to be totally 

 unconscious of the scent which he leaves. I think it 

 nothing extraordinary that a fox, disturbed by a " roar 

 in his kennel," should seek the sanctuary of his earth, 

 without pausing to consider whether the scent was 

 bad enough to admit of his trusting his precious car- 

 cass to the open air. Possibly, wliile taking his siesta, 

 he might have dreamed of a good scent — might have 

 had a night-mare, from visions of former cub-hunting 

 in darkness ; but if he were so wonderful a product of 

 his species, tliat upon his conquest the huntsman could 

 exclaim, " Vcni, vidi, vici " — " Now, I don't care if I 

 never kill another fox !" — it is surely matter of surprise 

 that, with his information concerning the state of tlie 

 scent, he had not also acquired a hint as touching any 

 obstructions to his free entrance at the front door of his 

 family mansion, during his temporary absence at his 

 suburban villa. "Yet this one would have gone to 



