834 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



Thus each new scrap of testimony shows the sport farther 

 removed from the influence of sex and season. And sport the 

 exercise is — just as surely as is that of the small boy who drags 

 his sled to the top of a hill for the pleasure of shooting down 

 again, of having the delicious sensation of speed without effort. 

 And whether the Otter slides from the top of a mere snow- 

 drift into the adjoining hollow, or down a muddy bank into a 

 stream, or, best of all, down a long icy hill, to plunge into deep 

 cool water below, it is evidently done for sport, for the joy of 

 feeling itself flying through space without labour and without 

 violence, and with the very same exhilaration that such a thing 

 would give to mankind. To this the creature fails not to add 

 the crowning charms of good company and of friendly rivalry, 

 for, so far as I can learn, no one has ever yet seen an Otter 

 enjoying its slide alone. 



It is the rule for young animals to play together, and occa- 

 sionally the full-grown will indulge in a good-natured sham 

 fight or a chase, for sport, but this is the only case I know 

 of among American quadrupeds where the entire race, young 

 and old, unite to keep up an institution that is not connected 

 in any way with the instincts of feeding, fighting, or multiply- 

 ing, but is simply maintained as an amusement. 



Thus the case of the Otter in Eastern America has been 

 fully set forth, but it is a remarkable fact that Sir John Richard- 

 son, who lived for years in the Great Lone Land, says not a 

 word about the Otter's toboggan slides, though he describes 

 its habits at length; Hearne's remarks I have quoted, but I can 

 find no other hunter west of Lake Nipissing who has ever seen 

 an Otter sliding for amusement, while I find many reliable 

 naturalists of the North-west, notably Roderick MacFarlane, 

 who have but little faith in it. 



DRY After remarking on numerous examples of Otter slides in 



LOWS the Adirondacks, Dr. Merriam writes-" also "of their wallowing 



places, which are either level beds or slight depressions in 



^ Mam. Adir., 1884, p. 89. 



