THE MALE CUB LEFT ALONE 81 



next found them ensconced under the bank of 

 the weir pool at Tide End. There they were 

 waked towards noon by the tide, which rose and 

 rose till it invaded their quarters, and compelled 

 them to seek refuge in the opposite bank, where 

 a young dog-otter was already lying up. Their 

 coming startled him not a little, but the moment 

 he saw the new arrivals were otters like himself 

 he settled down again, and soon all three were 

 sound asleep. At dusk they journeyed on 

 together and, after fishing and sporting in the 

 salmon pool below the morass, sought the roots 

 of the alder. They lay there again on the 

 morrow, a morrow momentous in one of its 

 happenings — the separation of the cubs. For 

 when, at setting-out time, the male cub began 

 moving up-water, his sister, till that moment the 

 most faithful of followers, turned her back on 

 him and, with the strange otter at her heels, 

 struck into the wood. She had renounced the 

 brother for the lover. Is it possible, animal 

 though she is, that she can abandon the com- 

 panion of her life hitherto, without some sign of 

 regret ? May not the slowness of her steps indi- 

 cate reluctance to sever the ties that have so 

 long bound them ? Surely it is so, for just as 

 she is about to enter the undergrowth, she stops 



11 



