PREFACE. 



Curiously enough no book exclusively devoted to 

 that fascinating beast the Otter, nor to the still 

 more fascinating sport of hunting him with hounds, 

 has hitherto been published in the English tongue. 

 Two monographs have appeared, one in German 

 and the other in French : but the first deals with 

 its subject zoologically, and the second only as an 

 enemy of pisciculture. For the rest, brief refer- 

 ences are to be found, as regards the Otter in 

 various works on natural history, and as regards the 

 sport of Otter-hunting in sundry contributions to 

 encyclopaedic or periodical literature from the 

 earliest to the most recent times; while there is a 

 scarce, privately-printed '' Diary," recording Mr. 

 James Lomax's sport in the North and in Wales 

 between 1829 and 187 i. 



Without presuming to instruct my seniors among 

 Masters of Otter-hounds in the science and busi- 

 ness of Otter-hunting, it has been my object to 

 bring together in one volume, at a moderate price 

 and within a small compass, the substance of all 

 that has hitherto been well said of both sport and 

 quarry ; and to supplement this with such informa- 



