a; 



The sport or battles of the wat'ry breed, 1 



And swiftly swimming with resistless speed, > 



Defeats the hostile bands, and makes the warriors bleed. J 



Few deaths assuage the hunger of the foe; 



No bounds his hate and savage fury know; 



The fish he bowels-, stains the stream with blood, 



And mangled bodies float upon the flood : 



The otter heaps in caverns of the shore 



The fish half eaten and besmear'd with gore; 



Of slaughter proud, he there delights to dwell, 



And the long night enjoys the nauseous smell. 



Snares for the beast, and gins, let others lay, 



Or into traps by tempting baits betray ; 



But you with missive weapons in your hand, 



Conceal'd from view behind a thicket stand ; 



.And while on fraud he muses on the shore, 



Or tir'd returns with jaws besmear'd with gore, 



The felon slay, and throw into the flood 



His wounded body for your fishes food: 



But first tear off the skin (for fear your fry 



Should from the dead, as from the living fly,) 



Which some rich matron will rejoice to buy. 



If you should find the young ones, steal away, 



In th' absence of the dam, the tender prey, 



And by his youthful years yet pliant, breed 



The gentle otter to the fishing trade ; 



For when suspended in the stream you place 



Your flaxen snares, to catch the finny race, 



He will explore each cavern and retreat, 



And rouse the fish, and hunt them to the net : 



As 



* " It is a very crafty and subtill be?st ; yt it is sometimes tamed, and 

 vsed in the northern parts of the world, especially in Scandinauia to driue 

 the fishes into the fishermen's nets : for so great is the sagaity and scenes of 

 saisling in this beast, that he can directly winde the fishes in the waters a 



mile 



