198 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



have noticed a capital scent under circumstances 

 apparently so unfavourable. And what says the 

 writer of the old Coplow song? — 



" The wind from nortli-east was forbiddingly keen." 



Again, we should infer that a heavy fall of 

 snow would damp out and obliterate every trace 

 of scent ; but every year's experience teaches us 

 the fallacy of such inferences. Hounds run wildly 

 whilst the elements are in wild confusion around, 

 even whilst the ground is whitened by the falling 

 flakes. During the March winds, whilst the dust 

 in thick clouds is fl3^ing in their noses, the hounds 

 are seen flying over hard fallow fields. Scent, in 

 short, is a puzzle which none can unravel, a mys- 

 tery which none can explain, one of those pheno- 

 mena in nature which we know exists, and yet 

 cannot tell how exists ; and the next most won- 

 derful thing is, that fineness of nose with which 

 hounds and sporting dogs are endowed in following 

 on the track over which the game has passed so 

 long before. Evidently there are two kinds of 

 scent, one proceeding or exuding from the body 

 and breath of the animal when in motion, and 

 the other that left by the foot or pad. The first, 

 although the strongest of the two, is dependent 

 chiefly on the atmosphere, and fails more rapidly 

 than that left by pressure on the ground ; but the 

 strongest of all is where the game brushes through 

 grass, heather, or stunted gorse, to which these 

 floating exhalations will adhere, instead of being 

 dispersed into liquid air. Foxes in a quiescent 

 state emit little odour, apparently not so much as 



