THE BOOK OF THE OTTER 



not rioting, but running the line of a travelling 

 otter. The huntsman then, instead of blowing 

 his horn while the whippers-in rate and attempt to 

 stop hounds, should put his best leg foremost and 

 try to keep in touch, so that if hounds check, after 

 covering perhaps a mile or two, he will be there 

 or thereabouts and have a good idea what to do. 

 We have vivid recollections of a day on which 

 hounds hit off the line of an otter that had stolen 

 away from a rock-holt without being seen or tallied. 

 She, for it was a young bitch otter, left the main 

 stream with a good start, and turned up a runner 

 which lay in a deep, narrow valley. At the head 

 of this valley the otter turned left-handed and 

 crossed over more than a mile of open country 

 comprising the watershed. Descending the other 

 side, she entered a stream via a hanging covert on 

 the near bank. When hounds hit off her line, 

 they raced up the valley with evidently a screaming 

 scent. At the top they hovered for an instant, 

 then swept on left-handed over the hill. The 



huntsman, who was convinced that they were run- 



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