CH. XXXIV. OTTER-HUNTING. 221 



morning in May instead of a most orthodox Christ- 

 mas-like day. The gray crows were just going 

 forth in pairs from the woods, calling to each 

 other with loud ringing cries, and all bending their 

 way straight to one point, where, as we afterwards 

 found, two drowned sheep had been cast ashore in 

 a bend of the river. 



We walked on, and soon came across the tracks 

 of two or three otters, where they had been going in 

 and out of the water on their way up stream, after 

 fishing in the deep pools where the two waters met 

 near the house. These pools are favourite resting- 

 places for salmon and sea-trout, and therefore are 

 sure to be frequented by the otters. 



Opposite to a strip of birch-trees one of the 

 largest otters seemed to have left the river and 

 to have made for a well-known cairn of stones, 

 where I had before found both marten -cat and 

 otter. Half way up the brae he had entered a kind 

 of cleft or hole, made by a small stream of water, 

 which at this spot worked itself out of the depth 

 of the earth. " He'll no stop in this," said Donald ; 

 "there's a vent twenty yards above, and I ken 

 weel that he'll no stop till he is in the dry cairn 

 forty yards higher up the brae." Nor was the old 

 man far wrong, for we found where the otter had 

 squeezed himself up to the surface of the ground 



