As far as the fox is concerned, there is little doubt that he and his relations vary considerably in the amount of scent they give off. Much depends too, upon the behaviour of a fox, as to whether hounds can make the best use of his line. A straight-running fox is easier to hunt than a twisting one, while the body-scent—i.e. scent retained by the atmosphere—allows hounds to run with their heads up, the scent being “breast high.” That scent is often far too high I have proved over and over again. Many a time I have been walking to a meet, and at some favourite crossing place for foxes on a road, or elsewhere, I have caught the scent of a fox quite strongly. Whenever scent has thus been retained high in the atmosphere, I have never seen hounds able to run fast, for it is over their heads, and they cannot reach it. In the case of foot-scent, such as is left on a cold drag, hounds have to get their noses right down to it, and work it out patiently. Foot-scent will lead hounds to the exact spot where a fox jumps a wall, or creeps through a hedge, whereas with body-scent they may run fast, but quite wide of the exact line of their fox, the distance varying with the amount of wind. On a real good scenting day the scent appears to remain “breast high,” whereas on a bad scenting day, it disappears quickly, or rises too high for hounds.
Whenever a hunted fox is coursed by a shepherd’s dog, hounds invariably have great difficulty in owning the line afterwards. It seems as if the sudden fright contracts the glands, or whatever it is that permits scent to exude from the fox, and the scent never again appears to regain its original strength.
Water often saves a hunted fox, for I have known many a one practically beaten, be completely lost after it had entered a stream. As the fox’s strength fails, scent becomes weaker to some extent, and it only needs a sudden fright, like the appearance of a cur dog, or an unexpected halloa, to cause it to fade altogether. For this reason one cannot keep too quiet when hounds are running almost in view of their beaten fox. An injudicious halloa at such a time gets their heads up, and it is ten to one that the fox makes good his escape. Hounds know very well when they are closing up to their fox, and they require no outside assistance to expedite matters.
If hounds get away on top of their fox on a good scenting day, his doom is very likely to be sealed, no matter how fast he runs. If, however, he kept up the same pace for the same length of time on a moderate or bad scenting day, he would outrun them, especially if he put in a few sharpish turns.
Luckily for hounds, a fox never goes far at his best pace unless hard pressed, instead he places a convenient distance between himself and the pack, and accommodates his pace to theirs. If he ran his hardest on a bad scenting day he would be liable to run into other dangers ahead, for, for all he knows, there may be other hounds in front of him, so he travels as slowly as he dare, while keeping a good look out.
Very high wind is not, as a rule, conducive to scent, but I have seen hounds run fast in such wind, which, in addition to being strong, was exceedingly cold. In December of this year (1919) one of the fell packs ran a fox up-wind against an icy gale on the tops, when the wind was so strong that we who were following them had more than once to lie down or be blown over the edge of the fell.
Rain, wind, and sun are responsible for the state of the ground, and exert their influence on scent. Too much rain is bad for scent, as the land gets waterlogged. Roughly speaking, scent appears to lie best when the ground is in good riding condition. Wind and sun dry out the ground and harden it, and frost does likewise. Hounds will always run better when it is hard with drought or frost than when it is very wet and holding. Grass generally carries a better scent than plough, though the latter in some districts appears very favourable to it.
