THE SENSE OF SMELLING. 
433 
sant transpiration, maintaining the balance of the different systems, 
and essential to the continuance of life. This effluvium, as the 
animal moves from place to place, is attracted, and detained for 
awhile by the substances with which it comes in contact, or it re- 
mains floating in the atmosphere. Among other properties it is 
characterized by a peculiar smell or scent, belonging not only to 
each species of animal, but peculiar to each individual, either ge- 
nerally or under particular circumstances. 
The sportsman takes advantage of this, and as most species of 
dogs possess great acuteness of olfactory power, and distinguish, 
or are readily taught to distinguish, the peculiarities of these efflu- 
via, and to recognise, at once, the animals from which they are 
derived, the dog is taught not only unhesitatingly to distinguish 
the scent of the hare from that of the fox, but of the hare or fox 
which he is pursuing, but has not yet seen, from that of half-a-dozen 
others that may be started during the chase. 
The dogs that are selected for this purpose are those the con- 
formation of whose face and head gives ample room, as has already 
been stated, for the development of the olfactory apparatus, and 
these are the different species of hounds; but a systematic educa- 
tion, and, too often, a great deal of unnecessary cruelty, is resorted 
to, in order to make them perfect in their work. 
The distinction between the scent of the fox and that of the hare 
is soon learned; and when it is considered that the hunted hare 
is perspiring at every pore, and, her strength being almost ex- 
hausted, is straining every limb to escape from her pursuers, the 
increasing quantity of vapour which exudes from her will prevent 
any other newly started from being for a moment mistaken for her. 
Almost every dog, however, except him whom indulgence and 
luxurious food has spoiled, is enabled to track the path of the man 
or animal to whom he has been accustomed, and whose peculiar 
scent is familiar to him. 
If the scent is nothing but the effluvium or gas extricated from 
the hunted animal, many of the supposed difficulties respecting it 
are immediately removed. The goodness of the scent depends on 
the influence of the soil, and the herbage, and the atmosphere. 
When the atmosphere is loaded with moisture, and rain is at hand, 
the gas is speedily dissolved, and mingles with the surrounding air. 
A storm dissipates it at once, while the cessation of the rain is pre- 
ceded by the return and increased power of the scent. A cold, dry, 
easterly wind condenses and absorbs it; and the mischief is even 
more speedily and irretrievably done by superabundant moisture. 
On fallows and beaten roads the scent rarely lies well, for there is 
nothing to detain it, and it is swept away in a moment; while over 
a luxuriant pasture, or by the hedge-row, or in the coppice, it lin- 
