HUNTING DIRECTORY. 253 



fail to take it entirely away. A fine sunshiny day is not 

 often a good hunting day ; hut what the French ca\\ 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 per- 

 mission, 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 the game 

 brushes as it goes along, scent seldom fails. Where the 

 ground carries, the scent is bad, for a very evident reason, 

 which hare-hunters, who pursue their game over greasy 

 fallows and through dirty roads, have great cause to 

 complain of. A Avet night frequently produces good 

 chases, as then the game never like to run the covers or 

 the roads. It has often been remarked, that scent lies 

 best in the richest soils ; and countries which are favour- 

 able to horses are seldom so to hounds. I have also ob- 

 served, that in some particular places scent never lies." 



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