CHAPTER XXIV. 



AMPHIBIOUS COMBATS. 



Very few of the present generation of hunt- 

 ers, I presume, have ever witnessed a fight be- 

 tween a beaver and an otter. I venture to think 

 that the narrative of such an event will prove 

 interesting to readers of Hunter-Trader-Trap- 

 per, especially as it comes first hand from the 

 person who saw the fight from the start, and was 

 in at the finish. It was an unique spectacle of 

 once in thirty-five years of bush life. 



I must digress a little at the start to explain 

 that otters often, in the autumn, endeavor to 

 find some tenantless beaver lodge situated on a 

 chain of small lakes. If fortunate to find such, 

 they at once pre-empt the old lodge and make 

 it their home and headquarters. If the fish sup- 

 ply is ample in the lakes and small connecting 

 creeks, they stay there until the snow hardens, 

 and openings occur in the large rivers and then 

 slide away to new fields, or rather, waterways. 

 This migration is generally about the 20th of 

 March in our Northern Country. 



One day in the latter part of October I port- 



185 



