180 COMMON OTTER. 



bouse.' Indeed, his pugnacity in this respect gave 

 flim a great lift in the favour of the game-keeper, 

 who talked of his feats wherever he went, and 

 averred besides, that if the best cur that ever ran 

 4 only daured to girn' at his protege, he would soon 

 fc mak his teeth meet through him.' To mankind, 

 however, he was much more civil, and allowed 

 himself to be gently lifted by the tail, though he 

 objected to any interference with his snout, which 

 is probably with him the seat of honour." 



Otter-hunting was formerly a favourite diversion 

 in England, and is said to be so in some parts of 

 Wales at the present day. M. Lomare hunted the 

 rivers in Dumfries-shire in 1833, 1834, and 1835, 

 with great success ; and Lord John Scott keeps a 

 pack of Otter hounds, which he exercises on the 

 streams of Roxburghshire. In general, however, 

 the sport is now unaccompanied with the exhilarat- 

 ing association of circumstances that gave it its 

 chief interest, but is undertaken in a ruder and more 

 business-like manner. On the sea-coast, at low 

 water, the animals are traced to the " cairns" or 

 " covss" by dogs of the terrier breed, but often 

 mere curs, which entering beneath or between the 

 blocks drive them out, when they are killed with 

 sticks or shot. I knew a man in Harris who pro- 

 cured in this manner a considerable number every 

 year, when the skins were in more request than 

 now, and who generally cooked the flesh, of whicfe 

 I once partook with his family. It is dark-coloured, 

 rank, sapid enough, but not agreeably so ; and un- 



