76 HUNTING 



squeeze into an opening, originally too small for one. 

 They attack the banks with claws and teeth, and make 

 frantic efforts to penetrate the stronghold, but their 

 progress is slow, as the roots are many and provokingly 

 thick. 



Having successfully tracked him to his " couch " and 

 roused him, when he will immediately dive, it is 

 necessary to keep a sharp look-out for the " vent," i.e. 

 the slight ripple caused by his coming to the surface 

 to breathe, when he only shows a small portion of his 

 snout above water. Hounds, we should say, will follow 

 his scent even in the water, for he carries a stronger 

 scent than any other beast of the chase, nor is it 

 repulsive to the human olfactory nerves like that of a 

 fox. But as an otter can swim faster than any hound, a 

 portion of the pack should always be kept on the bank in 

 readiness for the next " vent," for the otter's method 

 of eluding his pursuers is to "vent" and dive again, 

 thus continually keeping himself hidden from view 

 until he either finally baffles his pursuers or becomes 

 exhausted. 



Should he be so unfortunate as to get into shallow 

 water, his "chain," i.e. the ripple left behind him, 

 immediately betrays his whereabouts, and the death 

 is then only a question of time in the true sense of 

 the term, for few animals die harder than an otter. 

 Endowed by nature with peculiarly sharp teeth to 

 enable him to hold his slippery food, he can make 

 them meet through bone, and even through wood. The 

 most courageous hounds hesitate to go in to him, and, 

 as the stag receives his cou2^ de grdce from the knife of 

 the huntsman, so the otter receives his death stroke or 

 strokes from the spear or spears of his human 

 pursuers. 



