134 THE BOOK OF THE OPEN AIR 



another. To-day he will doze away In like manner the areas frequented 



the hours in a forgotten culvert of the by otters littered in the numerous 



mill a couple of miles from the cove ; strongholds around the coast might be 



to-morrow, after traversing as many roughly mapped out and the county 



leagues, he will be ensconced at cock- divided into beats which are as old 



crow in the reedy bog where the stream as the hills and as little subject to 



rises, his presence known only to the change, unless poisoned water from the 



curlew that shares the solitude of the mines depletes the streams or a fish 



upland. The water-bailiffs of the preserve is created where none existed 



Looe and Fowey hold that the otters before. 



reared in the well-known cliff strong- In time of storm, otters driven from 

 holds near Polperro " work up " the the cliffs take refuge inland, and it is 

 Looe River, a distance of about fifteen then that their tracks are oftenest 

 miles, cross the four miles of farmland to found. I have frequently happened on 

 the Fowey, and after journeying some them at these times, but in all my 

 twelve miles upstream to the moorland searches along the Cornish coast I have 

 reach near Brown Willy, return along nowhere seen so many traces as in a 

 the twenty miles of river to the tidal muddy adit near the foot of the 

 waters at Lostwithiel, and regain by Trevalga cliffs between Boscastle and 

 way of the estuary and the coast the Tintagel. The footprints on the floor 

 caves and rockpiles of Porthnadler Bay of this antechamber to the old mine- 

 whence they set out on their long round, workings are of all ages and in all 

 It is impossible to say how many stages of obliteration, forming as strange 

 weeks are occupied in making the wide and irregular a pattern as can anywhere 

 circuit or even to estimate the full be found. 



distance covered, because it is more The polecat, which is closely allied 



than likely that every tributary stream, to the otter and betrays its relation- 



ven every pool, marsh, pond and ship by its love of eels and frogs, is a 



reservoir within reach is visited by the denizen of the upper cliff, where it 



nomad who doubtless lingers or hurries hides in crevices of cairns or holts 



on according to the state of the water, beneath the radgels as the piles of 



the security or insecurity of the holts, boulders are sometimes called. This 



and not least the abundance or scarcity ferocious and blood-thirsty creature 



-of prey. has many enemies, for not only is every 



