The Science of Hunting the Otter. 157 



turbance of the normal conditions under which he 

 exists, and not because he fears death, of which 

 he can, in fact, know nothing, not being Divinely 

 gifted as is Man — and this is really the great gulf 

 set between Humanity and the rest of the Animal 

 Creation — with a knowledge of the future, or with 

 any appreciation of the distinction between Time 

 and Eternity, which for the non-human and soulless 

 beast has, in point of fact, no existence. This being 

 so, all the nonsense talked and written by so-called 

 " humanitarians " about the cruelty of sport — a 

 phrase which thoughtless sportsmen often regretfully 

 admit as true — is seen to be without foundation ; and 

 provided an animal is killed with the minimum of 

 pain, as by the impact of a bullet, the stab of a 

 knife or a sf>ear, or the strong teeth of a hound, 

 and not slowly tortured to death in a trap, or 

 by a gunshot wound not immediately fatal, or 

 by slow poison, the word ''cruelty" is misused 

 in connection with his death. In the case of a 

 hare caught in the jaws of a greyhound, or by 

 harriers and beagles, death is practically instan- 

 taneous ; and as up to the last she has no thought 

 except that she is more than a match for her pur- 

 suers, she can suffer no inconvenience except that of 

 physical fatigue. If this were not so she would 

 never become a beast of the chase. Disturbance of 

 the normal conditions of her existence first sets her 



