174 Otters and Otter-Hunting. 



modern '' needle-in-a-bottle-of-hay " method would 

 have resulted in a long and tiresome heel drag, even- 

 tuating in a '' blank." 



One may have such a drag which is not heel and 

 draw up to within a mile of one's Otter ; when 

 hounds are chilled and fatigued and the day has 

 grown so old that they are called off. The next 

 fixture will probably be in another county. If it 

 had been '' where leave off to-day " a hunt on the 

 following morning would prove a certainty. Or one 

 may find a brace of Otters together, or a bitch with 

 full-grown "followers" of from i2lb. to 151b. 

 One of them, maybe, is hunted and killed. If a 

 start be made in the morning at the place where 

 hunting ceased the previous afternoon excellent 

 sport will be shown. The wanderings of the 

 survivor or survivors over the adjacent country in 

 search of their dead comrade, visiting all their 

 holts and hides, and perhaps leading over a 

 watershed to some neighbouring stream, will be 

 cleverly unravelled by hounds, and some extremely 

 pretty hunting displayed. Or the old dog, who 

 may have been near enough to hear the " tow-row " 

 of the previous day's sport, may have gone up 

 stream, leaving a fine fresh drag that leads hounds 

 direct to his stronghold, when a good hunt is 

 probable. 



The modern system of hunting a stream once 



