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THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



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detect them, and it is well known that country 

 folk have but little keenness of observation where 

 country sights and sounds are concerned. On 

 many of the Welsh rivers they are tolerably 

 plentiful, and also in the wilder streams of the 

 north of England and Scotland. 



According to Stoddart, the otter has much in- 

 creased of late years on the Tweed; and so far 

 from the spread of cultivation having been any 

 check to it, it appears to have aided it in its in- 

 crease, from the fact that the greater number of 

 drains and culverts have afforded it more and safer 

 places of refuge than formerly existed. 



The long, lithe body and short legs of the otter 

 will indicate, even to him who looks upon it for 

 the first time, that the animal belongs to the group 

 comprising the ferret, the polecat, and the weasel 

 but while all its confreres live upon flesh, to 

 the otter all days are Fridays, for it lives almost 

 entirely upon fish. Indeed, our forefathers were 

 much in doubt as to whether the otter was not 

 a fish itself ; and so little has their doubt been 

 resolved by certain of their descendants, that the 

 Roman Catholic Church still allows its flesh to 

 be eaten on Fridays and fast days. 



In length the otter is, from its snout to the tip 

 of its tail, about three feet four inches, and its 

 tail takes up a third of its length. It weighs, 

 when full grown, from twenty to twenty- four 

 pounds, and even more. Pennant gives an in- 



