208 ROUND THE GREAT WHITE HORSE 



banks than from any inconvenience the snow causes 

 them. The otters, even if the rivers do not freeze, 

 have a difficulty in finding the fish, which in cold 

 weather sink into the deepest pools, and, in the case 

 of eels, tench, and carp, which form the main food 

 of the otter in the slow rivers of the eastern and south- 

 eastern counties, burrow in the mud. So the otters 

 go down to the sea-coast for the cold weather, and 

 making their homes in the coast-caves or old wooden 

 jetties and wharves, live on the dabs and flounders 

 of the estuaries. Rats also often migrate to the coast 

 in snow-time and pick up a disreputable livelihood 

 among the rubbish of the shore. Of all effects of 

 weather, snow makes the greatest change in animal 

 economy in the country-side, and weeks often pass 

 before the old order is restored. 



