THE OTTER. 209 



cipally of the chief inhabitants and their relatives or clans, 

 and visiters, male slaves, muleteers, &c. Having ascend- 

 ed the waterfalls, they encamp near those clear and trans- 

 parent rivers in which otters abound. After the business 

 of physicking the bloodhounds and a species of bluish cur 

 without any hair, they make their hunting dispositions, and 

 appoint their land and water captains to head each party ; 

 the duty of the latter is to stand in the prow of the canoe, 

 and cheer the dogs to the prey. The huntsman, in fact, 

 is mostly an Indian, as those dogs will not hunt to any 

 other tongue ; what this is owing to, whether custom or 

 sagacity, I know not, but it is certainly the case ; however, 

 the young Spaniards and Creoles have latterly remedied 

 this defect, and are now as well qualified to hunt a blood- 

 hound in the Indian tongue as an Indian himself. Both 

 parties having armed themselves with otter spears, barbed 

 like harpoons, and with handles made of rough, light wood, 

 about ten feet in length, they cheer on the bloodhounds, 

 who no sooner wind the prey than they join chorus with 

 their huntsman, until they arrive near the Calle Pero, or 

 otter city, when the land party divides into three ; one 

 watches ; another ascends the ford ; while the other pokes 

 the banks, in order to eject the creature. As soon as he 

 is started, the hounds are again in full cry, and the curs 

 are loosed to dive after, him, and will relieve each other in 

 this task ; as soon as one is up, down goes the other, 

 while the hounds keep, up the cry in the water at a slow 

 pace, until they eventually force the creature to the head 

 of the stream into shallow water, where these curs either 

 snap him up, or he is speared by the hunters ; after this 

 the hounds are allowed the gratification of mouthing him 

 until satisfied, when they again return to depopulate this 

 little commonwealth of otters. 



The otter is a very destructive and ferocious water ani- 

 mal, and will destroy its prey by biting off the head, and 



