HUNTING DIRECTORY. 243 



on Scent 



or growing lighter, the scent must proportionably be 

 faUing or sinking ; and then every dog (though in the 

 heat of his courage he pushes forward, yet) is forced to 

 come back again and again, and cannot make any sure 

 advances, but with his nose on the ground. When cir- 

 cumstances are thus, (if there be not a storm or thunder 

 impending to corrupt the scent, as I said before) you 

 may expect the most curious and lasting sport ; puss 

 having then a fair opportunity to shew her wiles, and 

 every old or slow dog to come in for his share, to display 

 his experience, the subtilty of his judgment, and the 

 tenderness of his nostrils. The most terrible day for 

 the poor hare is when the air is in its mean gravity, or 

 cBquilihrio, tolerably moist, but inclining to grow drier, 

 and fanned with the gentle breezes of the zephyrs. The 

 moderate gravity buoys up the scent as high as the dog's 

 breast ; the vesicles of moisture serve as so many canals, 

 or vehicles, to carry the effluvia into the tubes of their 

 noses ; and the gentle fannings help in such wise to 

 spread and dissipate them, that every hound, even at 

 eight or ten paces distant, (especially on the windy side) 

 may have his proportion. 



" I advise all gentlemen, who delight in hunting, to 

 provide themselves with a barometer, or weather glass. 

 I am sorry to say that this instrument (though a fine 

 invention) is still imperfectly understood by the philo- 

 sopher, as well as the farmer ; and the index generally 

 annexed to it of rain, fair, settled fair, ^c. are imperti- 

 nent and delusive. If the gravity of the air is the cause 

 of drought, the latter should be in proportionate degrees 

 with the former ; and yet we sec the sudden or extraor- 



