324 Practical Game Preserving. 



eels, and prefers them, whenever obtainable, to all other 

 fish, and that in this manner its services are very valuable, 

 for the reason that there are no greater destroyers of 

 trout and salmon ova than eels. This may be all very 

 true, but it must also be remembered that for one eel 

 killed the number of fish is wholly out of comparison ; 

 indeed, in most trout and salmon rivers eels are not so 

 very numerous, more especially in the higher parts of 

 the river, which the fish reach for spawning purposes. 

 Any amount of argument, however, will never convince 

 people who adopt opinions favourable to the extension 

 of their own sport, or, not uncommonly, to the limitation 

 of that of others, for there are always some few discon- 

 tented b.ut, nevertheless, wholly uninterested persons, prone 

 at all times to find means to cripple the angler's sport, 

 and seeming to have a peculiar dislike to the followers of 

 the Waltonian craft. 



Occasionally, when the streams are low, or when the 

 contrary is the case and heavy floods prevail, s the otter 

 may, for a time, be quite unable to obtain any of its usual 

 food, and is compelled to make shift in any other directions 

 which may offer a chance for appeasing its now less fas- 

 tidious taste in the shape of animal food, and in some 

 cases its hunger has been so great that vegetable substances 

 have been resorted to. This, however, is quite a rare 

 occurrence, and may result from the sudden freezing of the 

 river in which the otter has been accustomed to find its 

 prey. In the case of animal food, it generally, when driven 

 to such extremes, either endeavours to obtain rabbits, or 

 failing this, the pangs of hunger seem to direct its attention 



