OTTER BUNTING. 163 



a proper hunt. Hounds are mad. They rattle him, they bustle 

 him, they give him no pause. But he presently gains a long deep 

 pool, and here for a bit he has it all his own way. And very pretty 

 indeed it is to see the swimming hounds as they take the scent off 

 the top of the water. But he is forced to quit at last, and crosses 

 the open, viewed by everybody, right across the point of a meadow 

 and into a second stream. But here his fate is sealed. There is 

 not much holding here, and in half an hour's time hounds are all on 

 the top of him in about a foot and a half of water. Above the 

 pool and below it the shallow is bound by a human line standing 

 shoulder to shoulder, foot to foot, so that scarce a water-rat could 

 find room to pass. Even so it is absolutely marvellous to see how 

 long the Otter can evade his foes. No one tailed him. The 

 hounds got him fairly enough. There he is out on the grass. 

 Who-oop ! " Ladies and gentlemen, three hours and a half, and 

 twenty pounds if he is an ounce." Now for the trophies ! 



Y 2 



