130 OF GOOD AND 



a southerly wind without rain, and a westerly 

 wind that is not too rough, are the most favour- 

 able. Storms in the air are great enemies to 

 scent, and seldom fail to take it entirely away. 

 A fine sunshiny day is not often a good hunting 

 day ; but what the French call jour des dames, 

 warm without sun, is generally a perfect one : 

 there are not many such in a whole season. In 

 some fogs, I have known the scent lie high ; in 

 others, not at all ; depending, I believe, on the 

 quarter the wind is then in. I have known it 

 lie very high in a mist, when not too wet ; but 

 if the wet hangs much on the boughs and bushes, 

 it falls on the scent, and deadens it. When the 

 dogs roll, the scent, I have frequently observed, 

 seldom lies, for what reason I know not ; but, 

 with permission, if they smell strong when they 

 first come out of the kennel, the proverb is in 

 their favour ; and that smell is a prognostic 

 of good luck. When the cobwebs hang to the 

 bushes, there is seldom much scent. During a 

 white frost the scent lies high ; as it also does 

 when the frost is quite gone: there is a time, 

 just as it is going off", when it never lies : it 

 is a critical minute for hounds, in which their 

 game is frequently lost. In a great dew the 

 scent is the same. In heathy countries, where 



