Ii8 NETHER LOCHABER. 



salmon fishings. Whatever the price of salmon in the market, 

 depend upon it that the otter's larder is always well supplied. 



The semi-domesticated otter above referred to, after leading a 

 not unuseful life for a year or two under the careful and always 

 kindly superintendence of its intelligent owner, managed at last 

 somehow to break its chain and escape, and was never more 

 seen or heard of. The only other curious thing about this animal 

 that we can recollect was his deadly aversion to every feathered 

 creature that came near him. Whether goose or duck, barn-door 

 fowl or pigeon, he seemed to detest them all, and would readily, 

 and with every sign of anger, kill such as he could get hold of, 

 not to eat them, observe, for that he was never known to do, but 

 just because he disliked them. To all other animals he could be 

 easily reconciled, and was on good and even friendly terms with 

 all the dogs, cats, and pigs about the place, particularly manifesting 

 his love for his stable companions, the horses, by whining in 

 his strange fashion and straining on his chain to the utmost, as if 

 he would fain welcome them with a caress, when after a day's 

 work in the fields they returned to the stable of an evening. We 

 are not aware that, except milk, which it would readily lap and 

 seemed to enjoy, this otter was ever known to touch anything in 

 the shape of food except its natural fish diet. In the old 

 Sgeulachdan, or fireside tales of the ancient Highlanders, we 

 frequently meet with the " dun otter " or dobliran donn, as one 

 of the dramatis personce. He is generally introduced to us under 

 an amiable character, rescuing neglected merit from obscurity, 

 relieving distressed damsels, or succouring the widow and orphans 

 with bountiful supplies of silvery fish from the tarn amongst the 

 mountains, or the eddying pool beneath the cascade in the glen. 

 The amiable and friendly otter sometimes turns out to be an 

 enchanted prince, who, timeously released from the spell that 

 has doomed him to amphibious habits and quadrupedal form, 



