184 Poachers and Poaching. 



and each has the same answer. Abundance of 

 otters and plenty of trout exist side by side ; 

 and where the fastnesses of the former are 

 impregnable, there disease is foreign to the 

 stream. Many otters, many trout ; this is a bit 

 of nature's economy there is no gainsaying. 

 Here is an actual incident. There is a certain 

 reach on a well-known trout stream which is so 

 overgrown with wood and coppice as to render 

 it unfishable. This reach swarms with handsome 

 well-fed trout; and yet far back among the 

 rocky shelves of the river a brood of otters are 

 brought forth annually, have been in fact time 

 out of mind. And yet another incident. Of 

 forty-five dead otters killed in hunting, in two 

 only were there remains of fish food, and 

 this consisted of eels deadly enemies either to 

 trout stream or salmon river. These forty- 

 five otters, for the most part, were killed before 

 six in the morning, and consequently when 

 their stomachs were most likely to contain 

 traces of what had been taken in their night's 

 fishing. 



One of the most curious enemies of our fresh- 

 water fishes is a small floating water-weed, the 

 bladderwort. Along its branchlets are a number 

 of small green vesicles or bladders, which, being 

 furnished with minute jaws, seize upon tiny fish, 

 which are assimilated into its substance. This is 



