R. VENATOR and Mr. Piscator,

MR. whose very interesting conversa

tions are to be read in the Compleat Angler, would neither of them appear to have had much to do with otters. Venator had probably never taken part in an otter hunt; nor could Piscator have expended much time in the study of the otter's ways in the direction of ascertaining whether or not he be the enemy to angling he is often represented to be. These gentlemen ask whether the otter is a beast or a fish? Since these worthies seriously debated this question, however, an intimate knowledge of the otter and its ways has been confined to a remarkably limited number of persons; in fact there is no living thing which provides sport for mankind about which so little is known; for to this day otter hunters are not agreed whether the female otter brings forth her young at the spring of the year only, like the fox; or whether, like the dog, she breeds at any time of year. Of the habits of deer most people know something, if only that it is wise to keep out of their way at a certain time of year. "Reynolds" is sufficiently en évidence in visiting henroosts, and in front of hounds to make him an old acquaintance of the average dweller in the country; and people know

off a corner of a winding river he is a far better judge of short cuts than the average cabman-he does not seek his prey ashore, except when he sets out on a frog-catching expedition. Nor, again, does he float lazily on the top of the water basking in the warmth of a noontide sun; while the most persistent watcher will never see him walk into his parlour, for the simple reason that the entrance thereto is always below the water-level, and the otter never goes abroad till after sundown. He, therefore, who would see an otter,

table the otter has yet to make a name for itself; though Pennant does say that in the kitchen of a Carthusian convent, near Dijon, he saw an otter being prepared for cooking possibly some refractory sisters had been sentenced to eat it by way of penance.

The otter is sometimes loosely called an amphibious animal; but it is of course nothing of the sort; and drowning an otter is almost as easy as drowning a man. It is an expert swimmer and diver; but it dives only for its prey; and its

must go otter-hunting-or to the Zoo. A propos of the Zoo, a story has been told intended to illustrate the well-known affection of the female otter for its young. Into the otter pond, which was no more than half full, and had sloping sides, a juvenile otter once tumbled. It could of course take care of itself in the water; but getting out was quite beyond its powers. The mother took in the situation at a glance; dived in ; and then, with her superior strength, crawled up the slanting sides until her tail was just in the water. The young one took hold of the tail, and was drawn out triumphantly! Otters have often been tamed; and one is said to have been in the habit of swimming about after its master's boat; it would dive and come up with fish; while several otters are reported to have acted like cormorants at the bidding of their owners. As a delicacy for the

web feet-the webbing is carried to the farthest point so as to give the otter the maximum of propulsion in the water-are no bar to its progressing at a fair pace on land. But the otter cannot remain under water for any length of time; and is amphibious to the limited extent only of living in a dry warm place on shore, and getting its living mainly beneath the surface of the water. Although the otter is essentially a fish-eater, and does occasionally devour a young salmon or trout, it keeps down the stock of eels and other coarse fish which feast luxuriously on the spawn and young of the more choice sorts.

Just as the fox is perhaps the most graceful animal when travelling on land, so we must credit the otter with far surpassing every other living thing, fish excluded, with grace in the water. To see from some secluded spot an otter swimming, not as he swims for his life

from the otter hounds, but when, unconscious of the presence of man, leisurely, and for its own ends, is indeed to witness the poetry of motion.

It was said just now that man knows comparatively little about the otter; and it is equally true that otters are not familiar with the sight of man. In wellconducted establishments founded to carry on what Mr. John Jorrocks designated the " sport incarcerate," every precaution is taken to prevent the deer from becoming familiar with man. They are found to run better than when they regard living persons as common objects of the country; but, save when they are hunted, otters seldom or never see a man, and so, in one sense, may be called the wildest of all the animals we hunt.

ing his way across country to some other water. Moreover, the otter has a very delicate nose; and, just as the bouquet of the wine clings long to the cask in which it was stored, so would the reminiscences of an otter hunt, in the shape of the scent of the human and canine participators therein, appear to hover around the river

bank; as to draw the same district for an otter within two or three weeks, or even longer, of finding and hunting one would be indeed a fruitless task. Hence it is that a master of otter hounds needs a wide extent of country. A flood may.come in handily to wash away all traces of recent proceedings, and will of course keep hounds in kennel till the waters have subsided; but, in an ordinary way, the human tramps' chalk-mark for "flummuxed" is not a more certain warning to his successors who may travel the same road, than is the odour of a recent hunt to the travelling otter. Hence it is that masters of otter hounds travel from place to place.

Otter-hunting has been practised in the Hebrides, and on the streams of England from north to south; from the west to as far east as is practicable; yet while, according to Lord Yarborough, there are 330 packs of hounds devoted to the chase of the deer, fox, and hare, there

are no more than about nineteen packs of Otter Hounds; how then, it may be asked, does otter-hunting flourish in so many quarters of the United Kingdom? Well, for one thing, there are no "favourite coverts" in otter

hunting. In fox-hunting this or that wood or gorse is often a sure find; the litter or litters of cubs bred there will, unless disturbed, probably live there till the last of the family has died a natural death. So far as one knows, however, families of otters soon disperse, and seem to have no head-quarters. The otter is a sort of an aquatic tramp resting in one holt for one night, and then continuing his journey along the river or brook, or perhaps mak

To the foxhunter the arrival of spring is the threshold of the summer of his discontent; but the otter hunter is buoyed up with the knowledge that his favourite amusement is about to commence. sweeter

· scent

The

the

of the

flowers, the less

in evidence the " rigours" of the spring, the nearer is the opening day. As soon as the weather is warm enough, and the water ditto, otter-hunting begins. By that time, however, strangers and sojourners have left their winter hunting quarters; and so have many residents. They are to be seen at Hurlingham, Barn Elms, Epsom, Ascot, Sandown, and Kempton, while a comparative few only are found to interest themselves in the pursuit of the otter. A fascinating sport it is

unquestionably; yet scarcely one which in the widest sense of the word can be termed popular. Different hunts have, to be sure, their distinctive uniforms; but the casual attendant will find no opportunity for arraying himself in very gorgeous apparel; while, if he would attain distinction, it will not be by sticking spurs into a willing horse, and clearing obstacles of wondrous height, strength or width. The man on horseback feels nothing of the exertion entailed by a ten to fifteen miles journey to covert; forty minutes at best pace over a stiff country

otter keeps excellent hours-as he understands the term. Seldom, if ever, does he venture abroad before sunset, while he is in his holt before the first streak of daylight has illumined the sky. To postpone the hour of meeting, therefore, especially with young hounds, is to forego all the advantages of a hot drag; for, when once the earth has felt the warm rays of the sun, scent is apt to vanish with too great rapidity.

Like the fox, the otter is a "toddling animal" and before the hounds shall have marked their otter, the hounds may have carried the trail for six, eight, or even ten miles, and not up and down a river bank as some people imagine, but over a good deal of country, in the event of this particular otter having made his way from

aspires to graduate as the nearest approach to a "customer" that otter-hunting allows of, he must trust to the pace and stamina of the Apostle's horse; a beast which commonly requires the maximum of nourishment and care in return for a minimum of exertion. Early hours? Well, yes! they should be early. The tendency of the The tendency of the present day is to postpone the hour for commencing our amusements till the world has become warm ; and, in some countries, masters fix their meetings at an hour which inflicts no hardship on the sluggard who is not, at the same time, totally indifferent to the charms of otter-hunting.

If, however, you want to see otterhunting at its best, smoke one cigar fewer overnight; be content with less than the accustomed measure of hot stopping; wind up your watch an hour or so earlier than usual, and set forth to join a pack which meets early. The master of otter hounds cannot, like his foxhunting brother, put his hounds into covert and get away on the back of his otter; he must, like the foxhunter of old, hunt his game to his hiding place by the drag or trail. The

water

one

to

are

another. Superlatively good runs necessarily as rare after the otter as after a fox; but hounds might be running the latter animal sometimes from the head they carry over the long grass-you begin to hunt the otter, remember, before the hay harvest, and so the body scent clings to the tall grass and gives hounds an unspeakable advantage. Again, you will be reminded of foxhunting as throwing their tongue right merrily, the pack works through the spinney on the river's bank, or in the osier bed.

But we have not yet said anything about the hounds with which we hunt the otter. As most people know, the otter hound is a rough-coated hound, deep of tongue, and plodding in his work; but some masters employ foxhounds, and in this work, as when in pursuit of his perhaps more legitimate game, "it is the dash of the foxhound which distinguishes him ;" and as the most killing packs of otter hounds contain both foxhounds and the rough otter hounds-for both breeds have their uses-one can frequently see at a glance how the superior dash of the fox

hound serves him. Some there be who declare that this dash and drive has saved the life of many an otter; but the writer is inclined to the opinion that it has killed more otters than would have fallen to the prowess of the rough-coated specimens.

There is, however, one difficulty attending the employment of foxhounds for otter-hunting; not one in a hundred will stoop to the scent of an otter. Foxes and hares make their dwellings in fields and in woods and coverts which are private property, and into which the casual owner of a dog may not wander without risking the pains and penalties of the law; but there is no more favourite country walk than along the river or brook side. People of all classes

and thirty otters off the reel." The same difficulty is experienced in connection with the terriers, as only one here and there takes readily to the scent of an otter. When, however, foxhounds will hunt an otter they have one advantage over the rough hound. The coat of the former is shorter and less absorbent than that of the latter. The foxhound on emerging from the water just gives himself a shake and a roll-very often he does not stop to do that, for after a few bounds the weight of water is nothing to him and he is all right; whereas the longer coat of the otter hound proper not only holds water and so retards him, but renders him the sooner chilled.

will chivvy

hares, and

rabbits, water rats, and most other things; but the scent of an otter has no more attraction for them than has the pungent odour of the onion to a gourmet. Were not this the case, the otter might soon become extinct. If every dog would stoop to his scent, and if he could be marked, he would in many cases speedily be dug out, unless he chanced to slip away in time by his subaqueous front door; and even that might be barred if the dog's owners had an inkling that an otter was hidden in the roots of the tree, against which they loll whilst smoking their pipes.

No, it is rarely that a foxhound takes readily to the otter's scent. Read Parson Russell's memoirs, and learn how, after having collected some foxhounds he walked 3,000 miles before he ever found an otter; though as he admitted, "I must have walked over scores." Then he became possessed of a schoolmaster in the person of Racer; his hitherto incompetent pack soon learned their business, and in two seasons Mr. Russell could claim to have scored "five

novice that hunting the

otter, even in its preliminary stage, is sometimes warm and exciting work. The trail having been struck, the otter will in due time be marked, that is, hunted up to the holt in which he has ensconced himself. The terriers will be called into requisition to effect a dislodgement, and if their efforts be attended with success, the beginner will see the graceful movements of his first otter. At this stage, the stranger to otter-hunting will see a new phase of the chase. When with fox, or staghounds, or harriers, the huntsman occasionally has nothing to do but sit down and ride, the scent does the rest; or, when he has to come to the assistance of the pack, he casts as experience may suggest, or in the direction of a friendly holloa or an uplifted hat. In the majority of rivers, however, it is more than doubtful whether hounds would ever kill one single otter during the whole of the season were they not aided by the master, huntsman, and a few trustworthy helps.

On being ousted from his retreat, the otter is sure to try to reach some other