WILD LIFE IN HAKD WBATHEE 



"OITTEELY cold days, overhung with a light 

 JD mist that vanishes at noon, but in the dusk 

 of morning and evening floats like a dim blue 

 film over the red sun, and still colder nights, 

 bathed in unnatural brightness by the moon and 

 stars, have succeeded the rainy weather that 

 accompanied the advent of winter. Hardened 

 by frost, the snow lies thick on the fields. All 

 the broad pools of the river are icebound. To 

 the fast-flowing trout-reach below the bathing- 

 pool an otter comes every day at noon to fish 

 the stretch beneath the cottage gardens. If only 

 the watcher remain motionless and silent, the 

 creature continues a systematic search from bank 

 to bank, now and again showing itself at the 

 surface when it rises to breathe. Forced by 

 hunger to abandon many of its wild ways, the 

 otter is sometimes seen at night in the lane at 

 the end of the village, whence it is chased back 

 to the river by any wandering terrier which may 

 chance to cross its path. Its favourite resorts 

 are the refuse heaps in the gardens and beyond 

 the high wall built as a breakwater against the 



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