Let us, therefore, now imagine the hounds exactly what they ought to be, and observe under what circumstances they were led afield. As in England, their principal sport was the hare. In winter,[729] it was observed that puss, from the length of the nights, took a wider circuit, and therefore afforded the dogs a better chance of detecting her traces.[730] But when in the morning the ground was covered with ice or white with hoar-frost, the dogs lost their scent, as also amidst abundant dews or after heavy rains. The sportsman accordingly waited till the sun was some way up the sky, and had begun to quicken the subtile odours communicated to the earth.[731] The west wind,[732] which covers the heavens with vast clouds and fills the air with moisture, and the south blowing warm and humid, weaken the scent; but the north wind fixes and preserves it.[733] By moonlight, too, as the old sportsmen remark, and the warmth it emits, the scent is affected; besides that when the moon shines brightly, in their frolicsome and sportive mood the hares, in the secluded glades of the forest, take long leaps and bounds over the green sward, leaving wide intervals between their traces.[734] Footnote 729: See on the subject of scent, Sport. Mag. Jan. 1840, and compare Essay on Hunting, p. 1. et seq. Footnote 730: Cf. Poll. v. 11. Σύμβολα ἐν τετυπωμένα τῇ γῇ. Footnote 731: The phrase in Pollux is ἀποφέρεται ἀπ᾽ αὔτων (τῶν ἰχνῶν) τὸ πνεῦμα. v. 12. The author of the Essay on Hunting (p. 15.) enumerating the several kinds of scent, speaks of them as stronger, sweeter, or more distinguishable at one time than another; and Pollux makes use of much the same language: ἄνοσμα, δύσοσμα, εὔοσμα, κ. τ. λ. l. c. Footnote 732: Arist. Prob. xxvi. 23—Falling stars were regarded as a prognostic of high winds, 24. Letters on Hunting, p. 106. Footnote 733: Cf. Xen. Cyneg. viii. 1. Footnote 734: Xen. Cyneg. v. 4. Poll. v. 67. From a remark of Xenophon it appears that at least on one point the sportsmen of antiquity were less humane than the modern, since they pursued the chase even in breeding time.[735] They, however, spared the young in honour of Artemis;[736] the spirit even of false religion, on this, as on many other occasions, strengthening the impulses of humanity. Footnote 735: See also Spanh. Obs. in Callim. t. ii. p. 123. Footnote 736: Xen. Cyneg. v. 14. Klaus. Com. in Agam. p. 114.—Leverets, properly λαγίδια, were often in common with the young of all other wild animals denominated ὀμβρίαι and ὀμβρίκια by the poets.—Poll. v. 15.