126 SECRETS OP ANIMAL LIFE 



dead.'* We are indebted to Mr. Tregarthen for 

 enabling us to combine in a living whole sundry 

 personal glimpses we have had of this attractive 

 but inscrutable creature's life, and for giving us in 

 answer to our question regarding its survival these 

 hints, that in addition to great natural gifts the 

 otter has the advantage of a most solicitous mother- 

 ing, of a careful education resulting in a resource- 

 fulness that can hardly be baffled, and of a roving 

 spirit which becomes expressed in an unrivaled 

 elusiveness. Britain will indeed be the poorer if 

 man's ruthlessness prove eventually too much for a 

 fascinating creature whose grip has held for so long. 



