LETTER XXIT. 237 



falling, scent is generally bad. It is not my intention 

 here to enter into a learned or lengthened dissertation on 

 a subject which has puzzled much cleverer heads than 

 mine ; but a few practical observations may not be out 

 of place. The skin of all animals being porous, scent is 

 the exhalation thrown off from the body of the animal 

 through these pores, or, as the learned call them, the 

 reticules of the skin. When the animal is in a quiet or 

 quiscent state, the scent thrown off is moderate, but when 

 the body is put into active motion, the exhalations from 

 it escape so rapidly that they form a kind of misty halo 

 around it ; and, as the animal runs, these particles of 

 scent float upon the air, and, according to its tempera- 

 ture, become slowly or quickly dissipated. 



The state of the ground has also a good deal to do 

 with scent, but not so much, I am inclined to think, as 

 is generally supposed. I have known a capital scent 

 often when the earth has been as hard as a brick ; and 

 what old sportsman has not seen hounds running hard 

 during the month of March in a cloud of dust ? In the 

 cub-hunting season, also, during a hot September, hounds 

 will run breast high in coverts oi high wood, where there 

 is nothing to hold the scent, and the ground underneath 

 is as dry and hard as a parched pea. Again, I must ad- 

 mit that when the earth has been over-saturated with 

 rain, the finest pasture land , sometimes will not hold a 

 good scent, but it will often improve when hounds come 

 upon lighter soil, and sometimes even over fallows. To 

 constitute a perfect scenting day, both the ground and 

 the air should be in a temperate state ; but, as a general 

 rule, I would pin my faith chiefly on the state of the 

 atmosphere. 



