192 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



unlikely that different foxes leave scent of very different 

 power, certainly the vixen, like other mothering animals, leaves 

 a very faint scent in spring. Perhaps the one thing that can 

 be said with certainty is that scent is better under a low 

 barometer than a high ; and the barometer is never lower 

 than when the wind blows heavy clouds towards the north- 

 east. The hunting-poet had therefore full justification for his 

 ideal of a ' southerly wind and a cloudy sky.' Such a wind 

 is an insurance against frost unless the clouds are level and 

 very high it has enough moisture to make that most perfect 

 of all organs attain its most sensitive pitch, and the air holds 

 the vibrations or infinitesimal particles whatever they be 

 that instruct the nose of the hound as the ethereal vibrations 

 the eye of the eagle. 



