136 THE BLOOD-HOUND. 



A thousand thronging curses burst their way : 



He calls his stout allies, and in a line 



His faithful hound he leads, then with a voice 



That utters loud his rage, attentive cheers : 



Soon the sagacious brute, his curling tail 



Flourish'd in air, low bending plies around 



His busy nose. Then with deep opening mouth, 



That makes the welkin tremble, he proclaims 



Th' audacious felon ; foot by foot he marks 



His winding way, while all the listening crowd 



Applaud his reasonings. O'er the watery ford, 



Dry sandy heaths, and stony barren hills, 



O'er beaten paths, with men and beasts distain'd, 



Unerring he pursues ; till at the cot 



Arriv'd, and seizing by his guilty throat 



The caitif vile, redeems the captive prey : 



So exquisitely delicate his scent ! " 



(The Chase, Book I.) 



Boyle relates that " a person of quality, to make trial whether 

 a young blood-hound was well instructed, caused one of his 

 servants to walk to a town four miles off, and then to a market- 

 town three miles further. The dog, without having seen the 

 man he was to pursue, followed him by the scent, notwith- 

 standing the multitude of market-people that went along the 

 same way, and of travellers that had occasion to cross it -, and 

 when the blood-hound came to the chief market-town, he passed 

 through the streets, without taking notice of any of the people 

 there, and left not till he had gone to the house where the man 

 he sought rested himself, and found him in an upper room, to 

 the wonder of those that followed him." 



This acuteness of smell is not quite so inexplicable as it 

 may appear to some readers. Mr. Rennie has aptly observed 

 that " the very subtle nature of odours, tends to strip these 

 instances of sagacity of their apparent magic ; for a particle 

 of camphor, less than the two- millionth part of a grain, has 

 been found distinctly perceptible to smell.* This has led Von 

 Walther and others into the opinion, that odours are analogous 

 to heat, light, and magnetism ; in support of which they 



* Haller, Elementa PhysioL> vol. v. p. 58. 



