278 OTTER-HUNTING 



early hour. I know some packs fix their meets 

 as late as ten or eleven, but by doing this you 

 miss the best part of the sport. An otter leaves 

 a very strong scent, but when it is several hours 

 old it must be considerably weakened, and there- 

 fore, the sooner you can get on it the better. 

 You ought to be on the banks of the stream 

 you intend to hunt soon after sunrise, and the 

 warmer the weather the earlier you should start. 

 I need hardly tell you that whenever possible 

 you should work up-stream. Directly you hit 

 a drag, you should send some one on ahead who 

 knows the marks of an otter to find out which 

 way he is travelling, or otherwise you may run the 

 heelway for several miles before you discover your 

 mistake. This running the drag, which will some- 

 times take you across meadows and over hills, is, 

 as I have said, the best part of the sport. To my 

 mind it is very poor fun drawing up a stream 

 until you come to a holt where an otter is lying 

 up, and after putting him down to surround him 

 so that he has no chance of escape. Unless your 

 hounds are out of blood or you have already been 

 hunting for several hours, the pack should be 

 drawn off whilst the work of eviction is going on ; 



