The Master and the Deputy-Master. 93 



members or followers of his hunt to whom he may 

 present such to send them, to be set up by the 

 delinquent. 



There are many taxidermists — such as Mr. Robert 

 Raine, 26, Botchergate, Carlisle— who, being excel- 

 lent craftsmen, are also thorough sportsmen, and 

 would refuse to have anything to do with an Otter 

 that had been otherwise than legitimately destroyed. 

 Craftsmen like these can be the best friends of the 

 Master by letting him know at once when an Otter 

 has been trapped and by whom. But there are, it 

 is to be feared, others who are not so conscientious, 

 persons akin to the many game dealers in Scotland, 

 as well as in England, who maintain on regular wages 

 gangs of game and salmon poachers, by the depreda- 

 tions of which they prosper, but who are secure from 

 the penalty of fine or imprisonment or forfeiture of 

 licence that their ill-paid dupes incur when captured. 

 In these cases the appeal must be made to the purse. 

 If they cannot see that the profit made by setting up 

 the trophies of twenty or thirty hunted Otters is 

 greater than that to be derived from dealing with 

 half a dozen illegitimately killed, then, as most 

 Otter-hunters are also anglers or shooting men, or 

 both, let these procure their tackle and cartridges 

 elsewhere than from the local taxidermist who 

 usually supplies them, and he will soon wish he had 

 favoured the sportsman rather than the poacher. 



