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young, the otter may be tamed with less attention 

 than many other animals, and it is curious that this is 

 also the case with the seal, between which and the 

 otter there are a good many points of resemblance. 

 The food which they receive seems to have a con- 

 siderable influence upon them ; for if they are supplied 

 with animal food, especially with their favourite food 

 fish, at too early an age, they become sulky, disobe- 

 dient, and even vicious ; whereas, if they are suckled, 

 which can easily be done along with puppies, or fed upon 

 bread and milk, they are gentle and docile, and soon 

 begin to show considerable attachment, and also some 

 knowledge both of places and persons. It is a fact 

 worthy of consideration, that the young, even of the 

 fiercest carnivorous animals, are gentle and playful 

 as long as they are fed entirely by the mother's milk ; 

 and if a portion of vegetable food is continued to 

 them, their gentle disposition may be in so far con- 

 firmed into a habit. Even the cubs of lions and 

 tigers, when very young, are as playful as kittens ; 

 and it is very probable that by continuing vegetable 

 food to them, and breeding them again and again, 

 with an increase of this food in every successsive 

 generation, they might in time be brought to show 

 the same docility as other animals which are ferocious 

 in the wild state, but gentle and obedient in the do- 

 mestic. It seems, from this fact, which has been well 

 ascertained in the case of many animals, that the 

 effect of animal food is to stimulate the creature fed 

 upon it to hunt and kill that which supplies it ; but 

 that this propensity may be diminished by a different 

 kind of feeding. Of course this can operate within 

 certain limits only ; because the nature of the food 

 cannot alter the form of the teeth of the animal, and 

 the food must always be such as that these can pre- 

 pare it for the stomach. The otter, as already said, 

 has the cheek teeth much more nearly of a vegetable 

 structure than those animals which eat warm blooded 

 flesh, and therefore the softening of its disposition by 

 means of vegetable food can be carried to a greater 

 extent. It is the same with the seal, which, as it 

 feeds chiefly upon fish, as well as the otter, naturally 

 has teeth of a similar description. 



Various individuals, fond of studying the disposi- 

 tions and habits of animals, have tamed otters ; and 

 M. Frederick Cuvier had several of the common 

 European ones, which were very familiar ; and they 

 were fed almost exclusively upon bread and milk. 

 From their obedience, and their showing no disposi- 

 tion to be predatory, he very naturally concluded that 

 the fact of their being trained to catch fish, and bring 

 it to their master, which is mentioned by various na- 

 turalists, is by no means improbable. It is indeed 

 strictly agreeable to the analogy which we find in the 

 dog, in trained hawks, and in all other animals which 

 are employed to catch prey. This training for hunt- 

 ing must, however, upon the principle above stated, 

 tend to keep up a much greater portion of the natural 

 ferocity of the animal than if it were merely domesti- 

 cated, and kept on simpler food ; but still the exam- 

 ples of other animals are so many, and so exactly in 

 point, as to leave no doubt that both the otter and the 

 seal might be trained to fishing, and employed with 

 great advantage. Otters are more partial to wild and 

 sequestered places than to the thickly inhabited and 

 highly cultivated grounds, where the banks of rivers 

 are generally cleared to the water's edge ; but still 

 they are very generally distributed over all those parts 

 of the country which are fit for their distribution ; and 



they might easily be obtained anywhere in a domes- 

 ticated state, if taken and trained where they breed, 

 until domestication had produced such an effect on 

 them, as that they would breed freely in that state. 

 It must be understood, however, that it is domesti- 

 cation we are speaking of, and not mere confinement, 

 for the latter always deteriorates the disposition of 

 an animal, so that the most gentle dog imaginable 

 may be altered to a snarler, if kept constantly on the 

 chain for a sufficient length of time. In proportion 

 as otters might be rendered valuable as fishers in the 

 fresh waters, so might seals be rendered valuable in 

 sea fishing ; and as seals are found upon almost every 

 part of the coast, much frequented by fish, there could 

 be no difficulty in employing them. Indeed the seals 

 themselves seem to give us a pretty broad hint as to 

 the use that ought to be made of them ; for tame ones 

 are very apt to snatch up walking-sticks and other 

 little matters belonging to their masters, and play 

 about in the sea holding them up, as if to attract at- 

 tention ; but when this species of enticing failed in 

 producing its effect, the seal would return with the 

 stick, deliver it up after a little play, and then watch 

 the first opportunity of seizing it again, in order to 

 repeat the same trick. The seals to which we have 

 alluded were, we believe, in great part fed upon bread 

 and milk ; and their extreme docility, and slight dis- 

 position to go a fishing on their own account, though 

 very conveniently situated for it, being on a very 

 small island, are very strong confirmations of what 

 has been stated both of these animals and of the otter. 

 Every one must be acquainted with the very amusing 

 story of the " phoca," with which Monkbarns used so 

 to torment the valorous Captain Macintyre, whom 

 the phoca had rather ingloriously disarmed ; and 

 though there is perhaps no truth in the personal ap- 

 plication, there is no question of the perfect accuracy 

 as to the phoca itself. 



We have mentioned these few particulars respect- 

 ing the practicability of taming the otter and turning 

 it to account, because the otter is a very hardy ani- 

 mal, very strong, and very bold and active both upon 

 the land and in the water. It is an animal which 

 could be employed in any climate or in any season ; 

 and as we have not such command over the stores of 

 the water as we have over those of the land, every 

 means by which this command, which is the command 

 of articles the production of which costs us no trouble 

 or expense, can be extended, are at all events 

 deserving of a fair and complete trial. The same 

 inducement has led us to add a few remarks on the 

 seal, without which the notice of the otter would not 

 be complete, as, generally speaking, the otter does 

 not frequent the sea, though of course as it does not 

 breathe water, salt water and fresh would be equally 

 suitable to it. 



But though the otter is thus susceptible of being 

 tamed into a very harmless and tractable animal, it is 

 very different in a state of nature, and the hunting of 

 it is a matter of some danger as well as difficulty. It 

 does not spring at the throats of men, or even of dogs, 

 as is done by most of the carnivora which seek their 

 food on land. Its mode of seizing its prey is by the 

 part immediately behind the head on the back, and 

 it retains its hold unless the piece to which it is at- 

 tached is separated from the rest. This sometimes 

 happens ; and as wounds in the merely muscular 

 parts are not fatal, and perhaps hardly painful, it is 

 no vcrv uncommon tiling in rivers, where there are 

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