CATERS FOR ITSELF. 379 



fresh contribution. The most remarkable circumstance 

 relating to this animal was, that it evinced a sort of 

 aversion, or rather hatred, at being cast into the water. 

 It happened often enough, nevertheless, that when fol- 

 lowing a party on the bridge at Jacobsberg, some one 

 unperceived would place his foot behind it and push 

 it into the river. When thus treated it would show its 

 displeasure by a kind of blowing or hissing, and at once 

 make for the shore ; and for the remainder of the day it 

 was generally very shy, and would spit like a cat if any 

 one attempted to take hold of or caress it. When five 

 years old, a sad mishap befell the poor creature. A fresh 

 gardener, under the impression that it was a wild Otter, 

 wilfully destroyed it ; and to make the matter worse, the 

 man afterwards applied to M. Wattrang for a reward ' for 

 knocking the hard-lived beast on the head.' ' 



The Otter may soon be taught not only to cater for 

 itself, but for its owner. Olaus Magnus tells us that 

 formerly the Norwegian gentry not unfrequently kept 

 these animals in their kitchens for the express purpose 

 of supplying the household with fish. In later times, 

 indeed, one reads of many Otters thus regularly trained. 

 " Some years since," says the Baron Harlemau, " I wit- 

 nessed with much pleasure the performances of one near 

 Kungsholms-bro (that is, the bridge leading to the island 

 of Kungsholm) in Stockholm. Within a short space of 

 time it dived down frequently, and on each occasion 

 came to the surface with a fine fish, which it carried to 

 its master." 



Captain Sven Littorin speaks of a similarly well- 

 educated Otter that had been reared from a tender age 

 by a peasant, and was in the man's possession for several 

 years. "It fulfilled," says he, "the duties of a regular 

 fisherman to its owner, and would often proceed to the 

 river, where it captured quantities of large fish, salmon 



