218 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



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 beli-ef 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 

 the case when the ground is foiled by a flock of sheep. 

 But this is only the scent to which hounds are reduced 

 when there is no other — when that which they seek to 

 find floating in the air, is " dispersed, or rarified, by the 

 meridian sun's intenser heat ;" — it is the scent which 

 serves them to hunt, but not to run. They can plough 

 the ground with their noses, and potter on the line, and 

 on the line only, with the scent of the pad. The scent 

 with which they run, breast high, with heads erect, is 

 that which pervades the air some eighteen inches above 

 the surface of the earth ; — the scent which improves 

 while " the panting chase grows warmer as he flies ;" — 

 it is the same which floats above the bodies of the birds, 

 and enables the pointer, instead of stooping for his game, 

 to stand in a more exalted attitude, with his head and 

 stern at right angles. Should any one, for the sake of 

 argument, inquire, why, if the scent be chiefly in the air, 

 it does not serve equally along a hard road ? I should 



