OTTER HUNTING. 79 



headed him back to the Teviot, when he was 

 viewed down the bank by one of Lord Minto's 

 sons, and tallyhoed into the river. For a while 

 after he seemed lost, and a friend remarked to 

 the huntsman that it would be impossible to make 

 anything of him, and strongly advised him to 

 draw off the hounds. "By no means, while we 

 are able to work and the hounds to hunt/* was 

 the reply of the Doctor, whom energy and per- 

 severance have so strongly characterised all his 

 lifetime. At this moment Mr Broadwith's cele- 

 brated dog Slash made a desperate dash under 

 water, and gained a shelf of the beach under- 

 ground, where he discovered the game and had 

 a desperate encounter with him. But the otter 

 escaped somehow or other from the powerful 

 jaws of Slash, who came out after him showing 

 the crimson in different places, especially about 

 the ears. Ever afterwards he was so incessantly- 

 tormented by the persuasive eloquence of the 

 hounds at one time, and the application of their 

 ivory at another, to keep moving for his own sake, 

 that he constantly shifted ground, dodging up 

 and down from one halt to another with his 

 enemies closely pursuing him. In the end he 

 broke away over Spittalf ord, a considerable way 

 down the river. Mr Stoddart viewed him, gave 

 the alarm, and stuck closely to him with his dog. 



