Scent 213 



as a signal that the game is almost up, and knowing riders 

 put on more steam to be the first in at the death. 



Particular foxes have particular odours of their own, 

 stronger in some than in others, probably owing to their 

 physical condition or the state of their health. If this 

 were not so, hounds would be always changing foxes. The 

 more experienced hounds have learned that it is best to 

 stick to the fox they started with, whether his scent be 

 strong or weak, and the huntsman uses the greatest care to 

 see that the pack does not change. The younger members 

 have this to learn. When they are seen to drive ahead 

 while the older hounds check, the huntsman knows for a 

 certainty almost that they have changed foxes. The 

 whipper-in rushes to the heads of the youngsters to turn 

 them back, while the elders stick to the original fox. 

 This they are able to do even if the latter's line crosses a 

 dozen fresh lines, some of them much stronger, perhaps, 

 than the one first followed. That it is desirable to keep 

 to the one fox is obvious. 



That scent is good or bad largely owing to the condition 

 of the atmosphere is a point on which nearly every one 

 agrees. At the same time, it seems due not to any condi- 

 tion registered by barometer or thermometer, but to some 

 element pervading all ether, else a passing current of air 

 would dispel it. One often sees hounds racing to a line 

 that has half a gale of wind blowing across it, or, on a still 

 day when hardly a leaf is stirring, unable to follow when 

 the fox is not ten rods away. That the coarser particles 

 which make the scent may be blown away on the air, no 

 one can doubt ; there must nevertheless be some property 



