Badgers and Otters. 37 



is about thirty-six inches. The structure of the 

 creature is especially adapted to its mode of life, 

 this being shown in the slender muzzle, with 

 movable snout, which is employed in digging. 

 It is when thus occupied, too, that the short, 

 stout limbs are seen fulfilling their end ; and 

 when no natural cavity exists it is these limbs 

 and snout that provide one. Both are brought 

 into frequent requisition when digging for roots, 

 of certain of which the badger is particularly 

 fond. Badgers are quite susceptible of domesti- 

 cation, and a friend had a pair which he led 

 about in collars. They are possessed of great 

 affection for their young, and rush blindly into 

 danger, or even suffer themselves to be killed, in 



attempting to rescue them 



We have stretched our length along a slab of 

 rock which margins the bank and recedes far 

 under it. The stream for the most part is rapid, 

 but here narrows to slow, black depth. Ever 

 and ceaselessly does the water chafe and lap 

 among the shelving rocks, and this, with the 

 constant "drip," only seems to make the silence 

 audible. Fungi and golden mosses light up our 

 dark retreat. Never was green more green nor 

 lichen tracery more ravishing. Close-clinging 

 and rock-loving is all life here. Water perco- 

 lates through the bank, and spreads its silver 

 filament over all. Far out and beyond the deep 

 wood it comes from the scaurs, and the limestone 



