The Science of Hunting the Otter. 155 



long or good one, and the Otter makes a fine fight of 

 it at the finish, weighs well on to 3olb., and it is 

 not too late in the afternoon nor too far from home 

 at the kill, he will count it one of his red-letter days. 



But how many things there are to militate against 

 his showing such sport as this ! First, no Otter 

 may be working the stream to be hunted at the time 

 selected for his meet, and if the hunt only pays 

 that stream an annual visit this is .pretty certain to 

 be the case. Secondly, his river may come down in 

 flood and prove too deep and heavy to hunt. Then, 

 if he has not some tributary or smaller water handy 

 to which he can walk hounds over — a contingency 

 for which he should always provide, as the flood has 

 surely shifted the Otters from the big water to the 

 smaller streams — the fixture must perforce be aban- 

 doned, to the annoyance of his subscribers. Again, 

 owing to dependence upon railway facilities on the 

 morning of meeting, or to the fancied convenience 

 of some important supporters of the hunt, he may 

 meet too late in the day— he can hardly meet too 

 early, though I am no believer in moonlight meets 

 at midnight. In this case there will be no drag, and 

 it can only be by a '' fluke " that he will find an 

 Otter. 



On another occasion, if he follows the old- 

 fashioned plan of keeping hounds first on one bank 

 and then on another, crossing with them at the 



