214 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



the result Is diametrically opposite. With us, it is, 

 " better day, better deed," and we never make so sure 

 of finding as upon a day most propitious for the pur- 

 pose. Moreover, such an assertion is, at best, most 

 illogical, as it goes to prove, that what we have sup- 

 posed a good hunting day, is, in plain Eiiglish, a bad one. 

 If a fox be wanting upon a good scenting day, it is far 

 more probable that the weather was favourable for his 

 nocturnal rambles, and that the earth-stopper, instead 

 of being in bed, did his duty in barring him out before 

 his return home, and did not, in sea phrase, batten him 

 down under hatches. A fox, which has been more than 

 once hunted, need not wind anything, to fancy some- 

 thing in the wind, on finding no admittance, even ou 

 business, in his own threshold. His knowledge of 

 scent, like that of Hudibras, enables him to " smell a 

 rat," and he may frequently show that he is " up to 

 snuff," by making himself scarce ; may leave his lodg- 

 ing in the scrubs, to lie in clover, or on beds of down. 

 But to come to the question of body scent — Mr. Smith 

 says, that a fox " will lay " (lie, I suppose the printer 

 means, unless he thinks the fox is layiny again in a 

 mare's nest) till hounds " almost tread on him," "which 

 is one 2orooJ\ that the scent does not come from the body 

 or breath of the animal, but from the touch; and, by his 

 layincj quiet in his kennel, the scent does not exude from 

 under him, that is, from the ground he Icujs upon, &c." 

 Why— leave a ferret, a pole- cat, or any other animal 

 of the kind, in a state of quiescence, he emits no scent ; 



