96 Otters and Otter-Hunting. 



American school of wild-life fiction — fundamentally 

 unscientific in its attribution of human qualities to 

 non-human beasts — were better advised to lay aside 

 their pens and to hunt seriously with a good pack 

 of Otter-hounds for fifteen or twenty years, by 

 which time they might hope, with luck, to have 

 picked up some at least of the rudiments of sport, 

 and possibly of natural history also. They 

 are almost as trying to an M.O.H. as the 

 thoughtless young men who, having heard that 

 hounds are coming to draw the streams near them 

 during the following week, promptly take a few 

 alleged terriers and try all the drains and holts in 

 the neighbourhood " to see if there is any chance of 

 a find when hounds come." Their pet dogs do not 

 "bolt" the Otters, but they taint the drains and 

 holts for a fortnight to come, with the result that 

 the Otters leave next evening, and a " blank " day 

 is the ultimate result. I recently overheard a youth 

 who had been at this game abusing hounds as ''no 

 good," because they failed to find in a drain where 

 he was certain there were Otters two days ago, as 

 his dogs " had been barkin' at them for hours " ! 

 As in other departments of life, the Master of 

 Otter-hounds will find that his most heart-breaking 

 troubles come from the '' fools " rather than from 

 the '' knaves." 



There will be troubles, too, arising in kennels 



