THE WEIGHT AND LENGTH OF OTTERS 137 



the sea-wall at Kirton Sluice, in Ipswich. Its length was 

 not taken. The master told me that his next heaviest was 

 one of 29 Ib. killed at Blythburgh near Southwold, on the 

 28th September in the same year, and that they had killed 

 quite a number of 28 Ib. weight, none of which were measured 

 for their length. Last year, on 3rd September 1908, the 

 Bucks Otter hounds meeting at Trafford Bridge killed, after 

 a seven hours' hunt, another 34 Ib. otter ; and during the 

 same week yet another monster of 28 Ib. after a four and a 

 quarter hours' hunt at Haversham Mill. In answer to my 

 inquiries concerning the lengths of these two latter, the 

 master of the B. O. H. replied that they never either iveigli 

 or measure any of their Otters, so these weights, although 

 they appeared in " The Field " hunt reports, are not of much 

 value unless they were weighed officially, as it is very unsafe 

 to estimate the weight of an Otter with anything like 

 accuracy. 



Captain Sheppard, a well-known ex-master, whose hunt- 

 ing was done chiefly in Ireland, states that his heaviest Otter 

 weighed 29^ Ib., and goes on to say that the ordinary steel- 

 yard is most untrustworthy, he once finding his own 3^ Ib. 

 wrong when he fondly believed he had killed a bitch of 

 20 Ib. I can support him in this, as I myself found that 

 there was 4^ Ib. difference between my Salter's spring 

 balance and a new patent American one in favour of the 

 latter, which I fortunately had never used except to weigh 

 some wild swans, when I found it out. On 6th February 



1906, one of 35 Ib., measuring 48 inches in length, was shot 

 on the Stour at Fordwich opposite the George and Dragon 

 Hotel by the landlord, Mr. Watson, and set up by Dabbs of 

 Canterbury. 



The Kendal Otter hounds killed one of 33 Ib. in Rydal 

 Water in August 1886. During the first week of February 



1907, a large dog of 32 Ib. was trapped in the Rother, near 

 Midhurst, which measured 48^ inches in length. Another 

 of 32 Ib. with a dry jacket was shot in the garden of the 

 Hon. A. Holland-Hibbert at Mundun, Herts, in 1876, a 

 photograph of which, set up in its case, appeared in the 

 "Sporting and Dramatic News" of 6th November 1908. 

 The heaviest I have actually come across was one shot by 



