SCAKCITY OF OTTERS. 303 



down ! " and the fun began again. It was a beautiful 

 place to liunt an otter in, and to enter a pack new to 

 the game they were hunting ; and the shallows being 

 again stopped to prevent access to more difficult 

 water, and sticks forbidden, the cry kept up for an 

 liour. Every holt was dug down to the water's edge, 

 so that the otter must swim or dive, till at last, on 

 finding a portion of the bank unoccupied by a foe, the 

 second otter fairly broke water, and set his head over 

 the heather, I suppose, for some old drain or earth 

 that he knew of. 1 heard the halloo of " Gone away ! " 

 and made to the spot, with a touch of my horn ; and 

 it was ejood to see how the old hounds became young 

 again, with such a scent to serve them. They put 

 their sterns down and their heads up, and yelled as 

 if in anger that they could not go faster. Short 

 work they made of it ; for before the hounds had gone 

 many hundred yards they came from scent to view, 

 and tumbled the otter over. 



In the course of my otter-hunting in the New 

 Forest, extending over thirteen years, I have found 

 but nine otters ; out of these I killed seven, including 

 two killed by me in the stream at Wareham. On the 

 Wareham day, I had drawn the stream up to my 

 friend Mr. Radcliffe's, and at the close of our first 

 day, just at dusk, I have no sort of doubt but 

 that I found the otters on an island. AVe began 

 to assail tlieir holts with spade and axe ; but, it 

 being so late, had to give it up. The next morning, 

 Mr. Radcliffe informed me that his man had tracked 

 three otters, side by side, over some mud, going up 

 stream iu the direction of my draw of the day, as- 

 serting that no seal of the otter had been there im- 

 pressed before. I thought this news too good : one 



