112 TRAPPING AND WOOD-CRAFT. 



gutters walked a dog, soberly enough, much obliged to me, no 

 doubt, for thus making him a path. I reached my post, and 

 spent the morning without observing any thing unusual. 

 Toward noon I arose and was about to start for home to din- 

 ner, when I descried two men making their way toward me 

 across the marsh, evidently much excited, eagerly gesticu- 

 lating and inciting one another to haste. Seeing me they 

 stopped, and asked me whether I had " seen the otters." 

 Upon my replying in the negative, they laughed inconti- 

 nently, declaring that I was blinder than a bat ; that I must 

 have been asleep, &c. " Why," said one, observing my 

 astonishment at their conduct, " here are their tracks, cover- 

 ing yours, scarce a rod from where you sit. See ! here 

 they 've taken to water. We first came upon their trail as 

 we were crossing the swamp there. By their tracks, I make 

 them to be two of the biggest critters I ever so much as hearn 

 tell of. We hurried on, thinking we might perhaps catch 

 them ashore." 



After some further conversation, they hurried on down 

 stream, leaving me, to use a common phrase, "• rather mixed." 

 I was certain that no otter had come within many a rod of me. 

 I had watched eagerly for a single wave or ripple in the placid 

 waters of the stream from under the snow-covered bushes, 

 whose pendent boughs almost reached the water and formed 

 a curtain to the opposite bank. There was no sign, nor had 

 there been — not a trace. I was quite sure I could not have 

 passed an otter trail without noticing it — the unmistakable 

 scoop of his long, stovepipe-like body, with paw marks inter- 

 spersed along it. I retraced my steps to the spot wliere I 

 first struck the creek, after crossing the swamp, which was 

 the spot where they had said the otters had taken to water 

 ao-ain. Truly, there was their trail, a couple of them, big 

 ones at that. I called the dogs, and showed them the tracks. 

 To my surprise they were nowise excited about it; "sniffed" 

 and turned away. Extraordinary conduct ! — which raised a 

 latent suspicion. I doubted — thought — then light flashed 

 upon me, and I burst into a hearty laugh. It was a great 

 joke. Of course you understand it all. The long gouges 



