HO SCENT, &C. 



that deserve the subtilty of the virtuoso. His opinion is next 

 given upon it, and possibly the recital may tend to reconcile the 

 various and jarring sentiments that prevail amongst sportsmen, 

 respecting this first article in all their pursuits of the field, where 

 the dog is called in as an auxiliary. 



The author contends that the particles of scent evaporated 

 must be inconceivably small, as he has taken many hares after a 

 chase of two, three, four, or five hours, without being able to 

 perceive the least difference in weight from those that have been 

 killed on their forms ; nor from gentlemen who have hunted box 

 hares, could he learn, that they discovered any visible waste in 

 their bodies, further than might be supposed to arise from the 

 effect of discharging their grosser excrements. But admitting 

 a loss of two or three drachms after so long a fatigue, yet how 

 minute must be the division of so small a quantity of matter, 

 when, (deducting the number of those particles that are lost upon 

 the ground, dissipated in the air, and extinguished or obscured 

 by the foetid perspirations of the dogs and other animals,) it 

 affords a share to so many couple of hounds, for eight or ten 

 miles successively. To a sportsman it is needless to observe, 

 that scent depends on the state of the weather, and is affected 

 by its vicissitudes; a storm will in an instant destroy it, nor is 

 this to be wondered at, if we consider these , ^articles of scent 

 are of an exactly equal specific gravity with those of the air, 

 and which always fall and rise in just proportion to it. Hunts- 

 men who are hasty, rate and curse those hounds, (which yes- 

 terday were the best in England,) for galloping with their noses 

 in the air, as if their game was flown, when in fact it is in vain 

 for them to seek the scent in any other place, the increasing 

 weight of that fluid element having wafted it over their heads. 

 The most terrible day for the hare is, when the air is in its mean 

 gravity, tolerably moist, but inclining to grow drier, with a mild 

 breeze ; the moderate gravity buoys up the scent as high as the 



