262 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



XXVIII. 



The mill and farm will thrive apace, 

 And with them peer and peasant both ; 

 Only repel the Hun and Goth, 



And meet the Vandal face to face. 



THE OTTER OF OUR BORDERS. 



To every angler of standing who subscribeth not to the spirit 

 of the song 



' Up in the morning 's no for me, 

 Up in the morning early ! ' 



the otter is a familiar animal. Whether on purling brook, or 

 broad shining river, or crystal lake, or sedgy fish-pond, it may 

 be his chance to fall in with this crafty rival, I shall not call it 

 foe. Why regard it even as a rival? I know but few anglers 

 of the sterling sort who do so. Its presence as a creature of 

 beauty on our waters, is desired rather than objected to. It 

 forms, in common with the heron, sea-gull, water-ousel, and 

 king-fisher, all enemies to the scaly tribe, one of the attractions 

 of the river-side. Bereft of the otter, our waters would lose 

 a large portion of their interest ; so too would our mountains, 

 were the death-dirge of the last of their eagles sounded on Ben 

 More of Assynt, and an exterminating policy had struck the 

 raven, the wild-cat, and the badger off the catalogue of Highland 

 vermin. 



The otter is welcome, for my part, to its full share of the sport 

 going, and its bit of fish into the bargain. I do not quite coin- 

 cide, however, with my friend, the late Mr. Andrew Young of 



