Otter Hunting 233 



among themselves from sheer love of combat. When once a 

 row is started they all join in and are said never to quit as 

 long as two homids can stand up and fight. We are also 

 told of several attempts to keep packs of pure otterhounds 

 together, but their fighting propensities have discouraged the 

 most ardent fanciers of the breed. For this reason, we believe, 

 most packs are largely made up of foxhounds. The otter- 

 hound, like the otter, seems particularly adapted to the work 

 he has to perform. He is provided with a strong coat of rough 

 wire hair which seems capable of resisting cold. For, although 

 he is much in the icy water, when heated with exertion, he is 

 more exempt from rheumatics and other kennel ailments than 

 any other hound. His face and muzzle are guarded by a pro- 

 fusion of long wiry "whisker" hairs that gives liim a devil-may- 

 care look that in no way belies liim, and is a point greatly 

 admired by fanciers of the breed. Whatever his origin, he is 

 naturally adapted to the chase of the otter. Many generations 

 of use for special purposes have undoubtedly helped to 

 strengthen and perpetuate the particular characteristics of the 

 breed, wliich, aided by an Enghshman's eye and natural gift 

 for breeding for improvement, has produced an almost ideal 

 animal for the work he has to perform. In grit, courage, 

 endurance and fighting propensities, he has no superior, per- 

 haps no equal, in the canine family. He needs all these accom- 

 plishments and a good stock of each to draw from, when it 

 comes to the chase of a beast that takes so much arduous hunt- 

 ing to find, and so much fighting courage to kill, when found, 

 as the otter. It must be said, however, the fighting character- 

 istics of the otterhound, above referred to, are not so notice- 

 able with the Essex hounds as one might be led to think from 

 the above. Mr. Lindley Bott of Chelmsford, whipper-in to 

 this pack, assures the writer the pure-bred otterhounds in their 

 pack, which are about one in three, are not given to fighting 

 more than the others. The Essex men have found that a cross 



