AND ANGLING SONGS. 263 



Invershin, in his estimate of its deservings. He carried, I must 

 say, his partiality for the lutra a little too far. Some of his 

 notions were expressed before the Committee of the House of 

 Commons sitting on the Tweed Bill, in 1857. They are not, I 

 believe, incorporated as evidence in the report of the investiga- 

 tion, having been elicited from him in order to gratify the curio- 

 sity of one or two members, at the conclusion of the day's inquiry. 

 If I mistake not, Mr. Young placed the otter in a most estimable 

 light, shielding it strenuously from the imputation of being an 

 enemy to the salmon ; nay, he even went so far as to affirm that 

 a salmon-river is all the better of being harried regularly by this 

 animal, and that its occupancy of a retreat on the banks of a 

 water having the above-mentioned reputation, acts as a check 

 upon the increase of river-trout, and prevents much of the mis- 

 chief done by these intermeddlers during the breeding season. 

 But here are his own words, taken from The Natural History of 

 the Salmon : 



' The otter is a most wonderful and useful creature in a.salmon- 

 river, and yet its usefulness is but little known. It has long been 

 represented as one of the salmon's worst enemies, while in truth 

 it is one of their best friends. It is true that the otter will, at 

 very rare times, hunt and kill a salmon ; but this only happens 

 in cases of severe necessity ; only at times when frosts or other 

 natural causes have debarred it from the lake or trout-pond. 

 Indeed, it is very seldom that the otter will catch a salmon by 

 fair hunting ; for when hunger forces him on to the uncertain 

 attempt, it is done more from cunning than from speed. He 

 entices the salmon into some small or shallow corner, where escape 

 is impossible, and there gets hold of it. But the only attempt to 

 do so is when his easier managed neighbour, the trout, is not to 

 be got at all ; for when the rivers are open, and trout numerous, 

 the otter has full sport, as he often hunts and kills more for 

 amusement than for food ; and he kills hundreds throughout the 



