260 FISHING GOSSIP. 



approved parliamentary language, that the "noes" 

 have it. But against this prominent feature of the 

 argument we get the somewhat sophistical "blow, that 

 there exist individuals who, like the blind deprived 

 of sight, the deaf of hearing, and, it may be added, 

 the unfeeling of the sense of touch, are equally 

 bereaved of the olfactory attribute. Man, as a general 

 rule, possesses a greater perceptive sagacity in this 

 facial organ for the detection of coarse and objection- 

 able odours than the gentler sex, while the latter, 

 apparently ignorant of the presence of much that is 

 offensive to the ruder nature of man, can analyse 

 shades of difference in the essential odours arising 

 from a flower almost to the extent of determining 

 thereby the exact period of the day. There are few 

 of us but are acquainted with some one or other of 

 our fellows who will faint at the smell of a rose, be- 

 come pale and sick in too close proximity to a melon, 

 who cannot sit down to table if there be vinegar at 

 the board ; and, on the other hand, have a vigorous 

 relish for exhalations unbearable to the rest of the 

 community. We knew a young lady once, whose 

 delight (when in the country) was to lean over the 

 balustrades and blow out the lamps, the fumes from 

 the viscous gases of which she thought exquisite, as 

 reminding her of the opera ! Again, with us, a pass- 

 ing " sniff" will recall the minute details of some 

 scenes of interest long past, or remind us of circum- 



