A RECORD OTTER HUNT 67 



was moved, then suddenly one of the KaflBr dogs made a 

 rush into a patch of scrub that grew down to the water's 

 edge, and out bolted a meerhat, which led the pack a 

 merry burst across the veldt for quite a minute and a 

 half's duration. Then with a flirt of his tail, as though 

 to wish his pursuers " good-bye," he disappeared into 

 his burrow, which ran for many feet under the surface of 

 the hard -baked earth. Some little time was wasted in 

 getting the pack to the water again, but when finally 

 they were whipped back to draw for the legitimate 

 quarry, the Airedale, after feathering round a growth of 

 dry rushes for a few moments, gave a whimper, and away 

 along the bank she drove, with the whole canine rabble — 

 barring the foxhounds, which, possibly mindful of the 

 trouble they had already got into through running the 

 hare, refused to work a yard of the trail, but kept re- 

 hgiously at their huntsman's heels — yowHng and yapping 

 for all they were worth. 



The fun was fast and furious while it lasted, and the 

 manner in which the man of weight rode to the flying 

 pack and wheezingly cheered it on — in spite of ant-bear 

 earths, meerkat holes, and other horse -traps, with which 

 in parts the veldt was honeycombed — was refreshing to 

 see. " Hounds " very soon came to a check, however, 

 at the junction, a narrow but very deep spruit of the 

 river. 



Thinking it not improbable that the otter — I knew 

 the quarry to be an otter from the working of the dogs — 

 had taken to the smaller stream, I took the Airedael 



