The Science of Hunting the Otter. 171 



to convey orders to anyone of whom he is not within 

 speaking distance he should ask his nearest neigh- 

 bour to go and deliver them for him; which none 

 will refuse to do. 



Once the Otter is found it should be left to hounds 

 to hunt and kill him, save for the assistance to be 

 derived from the watchers on the banks or at the 

 upper or lower stickles. When hounds are getting 

 done and require blood, the day is growing late, 

 the water cold, rain falling, the Field tired and 

 beginning to thin out, and perhaps a long journey 

 back to kennels in prospect, it will be necessary to 

 give the hounds a little more assistance. Tailing 

 may be resorted to ; or if the Otter is beat and 

 hounds are all round him and have shaken him 

 several times it is permissible if you can see the 

 Otter, and hounds, by reason of their churning the 

 water and splashing it into each other's eyes, cannot, 

 to place your pole gently underneath him as he 

 swims and lift him so as to get his head above water 

 and give hounds a view. It is a practice that might 

 conceivably be abused, and none but the Master 

 actually hunting hounds should ever adopt it, and 

 then as rarely as possible ; otherwise, in the excite- 

 ment of a prospective kill, members of the Field will 

 come jumping into the water and, thinking they may 

 with impunity imitate the huntsman, begin thrusting 

 at the Otter with their poles and possibly even 



