Date:  Wed, 9 Jul 1997 13:53:58 +0000
From:  "E.W. Gilman" <egilman[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]WEBSTER.M-W.COM>
Subject: clorox or whatever

I have just been browsing through some of our evidence for "smelt" as
the past of "smell" and find that most of the recent stuff comes from
British writers, although a couple from American magazines may be
Americans. It was not uncommon in older American English. I leave
you with this odoriferous sample:

The whale was not a long one, physically speaking--say thirty-five
feet--but he smelt much longer; he smelt as much as a mile and a half
longer, I should say, for we travelled about that distance beyond him
before we ceased to detect his fragrance in the atmosphere.--Mark
Twain

EWG