Page:Cynegetica.djvu/82

66 ſuggeſted to me, I ſhall, in the plaineſt manner I am able, lay before my readers.

That theſe particles are inconceivably ſmall, is, I think, manifeſt from their vaſt numbers. I have taken hundreds of Hares, after a chace of two, three, four, or five hours, and could never perceive the leaſt difference in bulk or weight, from thoſe I have ſeized or ſnapt in their forms: nor could I ever learn from Gentlemen, who have hunted baſket Hares, that they could diſcover any viſible waſte in their bodies, any farther than may be ſuppoſed to be the effedt of diſcharging their groſser excrements.

But ſuppoſing an abatement of two or three grains, or drams, after ſo long a fatigue; yet how minute and almoſt infinite muſt be the diviſion of ſo ſmall a quantity of matter, when it affords a ſhare to ſo many couple of Dogs, for eight, ten, or twelve miles ſucceſſively: deducting, at the fame time, the much greater numbers of theſe particles that are loſt in the ground, diſſipated in the air, extinguiſhed and obſcured by the fœtid perſpirations of the Dogs, and other animals, or by the very Rh