181 



Respecting the otter eating i'rogs, I shall give my experience upon 

 this point presently. Wlien other and more agreeable food is scarce, 

 the animal, driven by hunger may, and possibly does, prey upon frogs 

 in its wild state; but nothing is more certain than the fact that when 

 partially under the restraints, and influenced by the etiquette of civi- 

 lization, the taste for music in this connection is by no means epicurean. 



In India and China otters are taught to fish, and when expert 

 they are let down out of boats with a rope or small cord fastened to 

 them, by means of which they are drawn back iato the boat when 

 they have caught a fish. I never found this kind of a safeguard 

 necessary. If one of my otters was in the water and I left the shore 

 or hid from view the instant it rose to the surface it came to land and 

 went in search of nie. 



The otter usually burrows in the banks of streams, or, if not, 

 appropriates the already excavated den of the muskrat. The entrance 

 to its den from the side of the river, creek or lake is always under 

 water. About three or four feet inwards from the external or lower 

 entrance the hole inclines upwards to a sufficient height for the forma- 

 tion of a dry nest to sleep in. From the sleeping-place an oi)ening is 

 made obliquely through the top of the bank for the double purpose of 

 admitting air and of allowing the f>assage of the animal in that direc- 

 tion. Advantage is constantly taken of this upper and second mode 

 of exit, which is sometimes concealed by fallen leaves, for the purpose 

 of looking out in order to be certain that no enemies are near. 



The sport of sliding, amongst animals, I believe, is peculiar to 

 the otter alone. Otter-slides down the face of steep banks may be 

 seen in both summer and winter. Upon those slides the playful 

 unimals amuse themselves for hours at a time, much in the style of 

 taboganning. I spell and pronounce this f;ishionable word according 

 to the orthography and mode of accentation of Chief Mayaskawatch, 

 late of the trllie of the Algonquins, of which aboriginal branch of the 

 red men of America I have the distinguished honor to be a regularly 

 baptised and duly initiated member. According to the traditions of 

 my tribe, the tabogan was first suggested to the Indian mind by the 

 otter gliding down his slide. Tlie tabogan and the bark canoe are 

 both purely Indian inventions, so perfect in their model and construe- 



