The Compleat ^Angler 



VEN. Gentleman-huntsman, where found you this otter? 



HUNT. Marry, sir, we found her a mile from this place, a-fishing. 

 She has this morning eaten the greatest part of this trout ; she has 

 only left this much of it as you see, and was fishing for more ; when 

 we came we found her just at it ; but we were here very early, we 

 were here an hour before sunrise, and have given her no rest since 

 we came ; sure, she will hardly escape all these dogs and men. I am 

 to have the skin if we kill her. 



VEN. Why, sir, what is the skin worth ? 



HUNT. 'Tis worth ten shillings to make gloves ; the gloves of 

 an otter are the best fortification for your hands that can be thought 

 on against wet weather. 



Pise. I pray, honest huntsman, let me ask you a pleasant 

 question : do you hunt a beast or a fish ? 



HUNT. Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you ; I leave it to 

 be resolved by the college of Carthusians, who have made their vows 

 never to eat flesh. But I have heard the question hath been debated 

 among many great clerks, and they seem to differ about it; yet most 

 agree that her tail is fish ; and if her body be fish too, then I may 

 say that a fish will walk upon land ; for an otter does so, sometimes, 

 five or six or ten miles in a night, to catch for her young ones, or to 

 glut herself with fish. And I can tell you that pigeons will fly forty 

 miles for a breakfast ; but, sir, I am sure the otter devours much 

 fish, and kills and spoils much more than he eats. And I can tell 

 you that this dog-fisher (for so the Latins call him) can smell a fish 

 in the water a hundred yards from him : Gesner says much farther ; 

 and that his stones are good against the falling sickness ; and that 

 there is an herb, benione, which being hung in a linen cloth, near a 

 fish pond, or any haunt that he uses, makes him to avoid the place ; 

 which proves he smells both by water and land ; and I can tell you 

 there is brave hunting this water-dog in Cornwall, where there have 

 been so many, that our learned Camden says there is a river called 

 Ottersey, which was so named by reason of the abundance of otters 

 that bred and fed in it. 



And thus much for my knowledge of the otter, which you may 

 now see above water at vent, and the dogs close with him ; I now 



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