238 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



Look again at a pack of hounds crossing a river on a 

 good scenting day ; they throw their tongues cheerfully 

 as they breast the torrent, but it is idle to suppose that 

 the quickly flowing waters can hold a scent ; the water 

 in which the fox has laved himself has long since passed 

 away, and is hastening perhaps a mile in advance to add 

 its tributary volume to the mighty ocean. But, gently 

 wafted over the stream, the scent of the flying fox is 

 borne on the soft breeze to greet the olfactory nerves of 

 the struggling pack, and guide them to the wished-for 

 bank. When hounds run up wind, with heads up and 

 sterns down, the scent is said to be breast high, but it is 

 more than that, it is head high — that is, the particles of 

 scent float over the heads of the hounds as well. If not, 

 how is it that the last hound in the pack throws his tongue 

 as eagerly as the first. Were it only breast high, the 

 bodies of the first few couples, interposing between the 

 scent and their companions, would entirely absorb these 

 floating particles, as the scent of their own bodies must 

 overcome the scent of the fox, and render it unintelligible 

 or unattainable to those forming the rear rank. 



This may be seen in the conduct of hounds upon a bad 

 scenting day, where there is only what we call a pad 

 scent ; that is, a scent left chiefly by the foot of the fox. 

 There is then no merry cry of hounds ; but the sojlons of 

 the pack alone, with slow and solemn notes, proclaim the 

 welcome news to their other mute and less sage friends, 

 that their game is forward. See how the young and 

 dashing spirits, ever foremost and fiercest in the fray 

 when a burning scent calls only for the exercise of limb 

 and tongue, now take their proper places in the rear, and 

 wait for wiser and older heads to guide them. See with 



