NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



often despatched to them from parts of the country far 

 distant from their own headquarters. Some packs make 

 an annual tour and hunt the rivers of several counties. 

 The late Mr. Geoffrey Hill, one of the most enthusiastic 

 masters that ever hunted an otter, wandered far afield, 

 and was as welcome to the farmers and landowners of 

 the Midland shires as to those of Shropshire and Wales. 

 Major Green, of the Dartmoor Otter-hounds, was wont 

 to quit occasionally his own waters for a fortnight's 

 campaign in Ireland. Mr. Courtenay Tracey is another 

 veteran who is well known in many counties. 



The otter is so secret and cunning a beast that he 

 may live for years upon a stream without making 

 known his presence to the neighbouring country people. 

 In rivers where salmon and trout are plentiful his 

 devastations, necessarily, become more notorious ; he 

 is far more closely watched, and keepers, as well as 

 owners and lessees, of valuable fishings are not likely 

 to tolerate the presence of over many of these bold and 

 most cunning marauders. Where coarse fish only are 

 to be found, and no trouble is taken over their preserva- 

 tion, otters can and do live unmolested for generations. 

 Within the last year or two certain streams in some of 

 the quietest parts of the midlands, where few fishermen 

 troubled the banks, and only shepherds and farmers 

 crossed the fields, have been visited by otter-hounds. 

 Otters were in this locality absolutely undreamed of by 

 the country people. Generations of farmers had lived 

 and died there without a suspicion of the presence of 

 otters, which all the time were flourishing almost at 

 their doors. The lads caught perch and pike and roach 

 and dace and gudgeon in the stream close by, and grew 

 up, and abandoned the sport for graver cares, without 

 ever setting eyes upon the four-footed fishers, which 

 nightly visited the best pools and killed the finest fish. 



252 



