112 OTTER HUNTING, FALCONRY, SHOOTING 



easily have bagged him alive. However, he has a brother 

 or sister left, and quite able to take care of itself. We 

 killed the dam here on the I2th May after a fine hunt 

 of about an hour." ' 



And again, in reference to scent in animals : — 



" Scent, in what we humorously call the lower animals, 

 is, and must alwa\s remain a mystery. I once was otter 

 hunting on a stream in South Devon. After a quick, 

 short drag, we put down two otters from the roots of an 

 old oak, overhanging the water. The larger otter took 

 up stream, and I ran off as hard as I could go, to try 

 and see him go over a shallow stickle, while the hounds 

 followed the smaller otter down stream, for some ten 

 minutes before they could be stopped. My gentleman 

 just put his nose up in mid-stream opposite to me. I 

 tallied him, but it was certainly more than a quarter of 

 an hour before the hounds came tearing along the bank, 

 on my side, quite mute ; immediately that the leading 

 hounds reached me they opened with a crash, though the 

 stream ran swiftly, and they were running down wind. 

 This happened about 7 a.m., and we did not handle the 

 other otter till after 5 p.m." - 



"April \2th, 1895. 

 " Don't let them kill or injure their otter, but coax 

 him or her into a pigsty or a byre, a bothy or a 



1 To Hon. Mrs. Crichton. 

 ^ To T. Buckley, Esq. 



