334 THE TRAPPER. 



dry themselves and scrape, as dogs do at rabbit holes. 

 They are frequently seen on the ice in winter. One De- 

 cember morning when my lake was one sheet of glassy 

 black ice, Toma woke me up, saying that he saw two otters 

 in the middle of the lake. We got our guns and I strapped 

 on my skates and went in pursuit while Toma took a short 

 cut through the woods. When first they discovered that 

 they were pursued they were about half a mile a head of me. 

 My skating at the best is not swanlike. In those days I 

 worked my arms considerably more than my legs ; indeed, 

 the latter limbs seemed to have but little connection with 

 the rest of my body. But ice was good, wind and muscle 

 sound, and in a few minutes I overhauled the otter, and 

 missed them like a man at five paces distance. It was my 

 first attempt at shooting on skates, and for half a minute 

 more or less after pulling trigger it seemed probable that 

 I should then and there end my mad career. At the close 

 of this brief period of concentrated agony, during which I 

 performed a variety of figures that I have never attempted 

 since, I regained my balance and resumed the chase. 

 Overtaking the hindmost otter, I made a job at him with 

 my gun, and he, looking anything but pleasant, snapped at 

 the barrels ; at the same instant, the muzzle catching in 

 the ice, I came a header, as it seemed to me, right on the 

 top of the beast. I actually felt his breath on my face, 

 and for one dreadful second there seemed a probability that 

 I should come to the ignominious end of being eaten by an 

 otter. Fortunately, he preferred fish and freedom to an 

 exhausted man on skates, and I think he was right. When 

 I rose he was 30 yards off in one direction, and my gun 10 

 yards off in another. The chase was now getting exciting ; 



