6 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



order cannot by their rules ever partake of flesh. Walton 

 makes Venator say, when he asks him if he hunts a beast 

 or a fish, " Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you I 

 leave it to be resolved by the College of Carthusians, who 

 have made vows never to eat flesh. But I have heard the 

 question hath been debated among many great clubs, and 

 they seem to differ about it ; yet most agree that her tail is 

 fish, and if her body be fish too, then I may say that a fish 

 will walk upon land (for an otter does so) sometimes five or 

 six, or ten, miles in a night." 



THE OTTER. 



Although for the most part a fish-eater, there is consider- 

 able difference of opinion as to the advisability of destroy- 

 ing the otter in trout-streams whether its particular 

 predilection for eels and small jack does not compensate 

 for any harm it may do to the trout, as there can be but 

 little doubt that eels destroy an enormous quantity of trout 

 ova and fry. 



Mr. Collier, a Master of Otter Hounds, states that the 

 otter is in reality the trout-angler's friend, from being the 



