HUNTING DIRECTORY. 241 



Smallncss of the Particles of Scent. 



to me, I shall, in the plainest manner I am able, lay 

 before my readers. 



** That these particles are inconceivably small, is (I 

 think) manifest from their vast numbers. I have taken 

 hundreds of hares, after a chase of two, three, four, or 

 live hours, and could never perceive the least difference 

 in bulk or weight, from those I have seized or snapt in 

 their forms : nor could I ever learn from gentlemen who 

 have hunted basket hares, that theycould discover any 

 visible waste in their bodies, any farther than may be 

 supposed to be the effect of discharging their grosser 

 excrements. But, supposing an abatement of two or 

 three grains, or drams, after so long a fatigue ; yet how 

 minute and almost infinite must be the division of so 

 small a quantity of matter, when it affords a share to so 

 many couple of dogs, for eight, ten, or twelve miles suc- 

 cessively : deducting at the same time, the much greater 

 numbers of those particles, that are lost in the ground, 

 dissipated in the air, extinguished and obscured by the 

 foetid perspirations of the dogs, and other animals ; or 

 by the very fumes and exhalations of the earth itself. 

 That these particles are subject to such dissipation or 

 corruption, every sportsman knows ; for as none of them 

 will retain their odour after a certain proportionable 

 time, so it is daily evident that this time of their duration 

 is very obnoxious to the vicissitudes of the weather, that 

 the scent of the animal (as well as her more solid flesh) 

 will lose its sweetness sooner or later, according to the 

 disposition of the ambient air. I have frequently heard 

 the good housewives complain that, against rain or 

 thunder, their milk will turn, and their larders taint ; 



