46 The Complete Angler 



left thus much of it as you see, and was fishing for 

 more ; when we came we found her just at it : but 

 we were here very early, we were here an hour be- 

 fore sunrise, and have given her no rest since we 

 came ; sure she will hardly escape all these dogs 

 and men. I am to have the skin if we kill her. 



VENATOR. Why, Sir, what is the skin worth? 



HUNTSMAN. It is worth ten shillings to make 

 gloves ; the gloves of an Otter are the best fortifi- 

 cation for your hands that can be thought on against 

 wet weather. 



PlSCATOR. I pray, honest Huntsman, let me ask 

 you a pleasant question : do you hunt a beast or a 

 fish? 



HUNTSMAN. Sir, it is not in my power to resolve 

 you ; I leave it to be resolved by the college of 

 Carthusians, who have made vows never to eat flesh. 

 But, I have heard, the question hath been debated 

 among many great clerks, and they seem to differ 

 about it ; yet most agree that her tail is fish : and if 

 her body be fish too, then I may say that a fish will 

 walk upon land : for an Otter does so sometimes, 

 five or six or ten miles in a night, to catch for her 

 young ones, or to glut herself with fish. And I can 

 tell you that Pigeons will fly forty miles for a break- 

 fast : but, Sir, I am sure the Otter devours much 

 fish, and kills and spoils much more than he eats. 

 And I can tell you, that this dog-fisher, for so the 

 Latins call him, can smell a fish in the water a hundred 

 yards from him : Gesner says much farther : and 

 that his stones are good against the falling sickness ; 

 and that there is an herb, Benione, which, being hung 

 in a linen cloth near a fish-pond, or any haunt that 

 he uses, makes him to avoid the place ; which proves 

 he smells both by water and land. And, I can tell 

 you, there is brave hunting this water-dog in Corn- 

 wall; where there have been so many, that our 



