Existing Otter Hunts in the British Isles. 1S3 



how you will, it is where Otters are frequently 

 hunted that Otters will be found. An annual visit 

 to a stream is worse than useless, since if an Otter 

 is found there it only serves to show the local 

 riparian owners, angling societies, and their keepers 

 — not to speak of the loafers and poachers of the 

 district — that Otters frequent their waters; and, 

 since hounds are known not to be coming again for a 

 twelvemonth, they are ruthlessly slain by gunshot 

 and trap, with the result that the next annual visit 

 is like to prove a blank. 



In any country it is always in the rivers nearest 

 kennels that the best sport is obtained, partly, 

 perhaps, because there are more interested folk to 

 keep an eye upon them, but chiefly because they are 

 more frequently hunted. No stronger argument 

 in favour of smaller Otter-hunting countries and 

 more numerous packs could possibly be adduced, 

 and were it acted upon such anomalies as one 

 county supporting four packs, and its neighbour 

 pack, a knight's move distant, hunting over 

 parts of five counties, would he removed. As 

 a matter of actual practice most of the sport ob- 

 tained by these far-reaching hunts is found in 

 one (or at most two) counties, and the advantage to 

 these hunts of embracing larger districts — other than 

 that of pride of place or territorial aggrandisement 

 — is, so far as sport is concerned, almost tiH. In 



