Otter Hunting 227 



music; and for the men and women, too, who have the true 

 hunting instinct in their blood, otter hunting takes second 

 place to no other form of the chase. AVhoever has followed 

 the writer's experiences in the hunting fields so far may be 

 surprised to hear him say he has never had a day to hounds 

 that, for unflagging interest and hunting excitement, outranks 

 the day's sport he had with the Essex otterhounds, which he 

 is about to record in tliis chapter. How shall he go about it? 

 How shall he find the words to set the picture before his 

 readers with all its varied lights and shadows? 



As the otter in America is so httle known except to 

 trappers of the Hudson Bay country and other remote parts, 

 he will need a letter of introduction to most Americans before 

 they realise what an important personage he really is, and espe- 

 cially, what it means to outwit and outgeneral him. 



George T. Underbill says, "The Otter is more nervous 

 and fiercer than any other English beast of the chase"; Otto 

 Paget says, "This sport, I think, offers more opportunities 

 for displaying craft and resources than any other form of 

 hunting"; to all of which the writer says "Amen!" 



There is probably less known about the otter than about 

 any other wild animal. Natural History does little more than 

 catalogue him. His history, as the biographers would say, 

 "is shrouded in obscurity." This, however, never worries the 

 otter. He outranks all other gam.e for shyness. He inhabits 

 nearly every stream in Great Britain, but it is very rare, indeed, 

 that one is ever seen, even by the most ardent fishermen or by 

 the owner of the stream on which they are most numerous. No 

 doubt he lives and thrives in hundreds of water courses in the 

 States and Canada, where no one would expect to find him 

 and when only a pack of otterhounds or a Hudson Bay 

 trapper would locate him. Publicity is the one thing above all 

 others the otter wishes to escape. In this, as in every other 

 hne, he is most successful. In build the otter resembles the 



