330 HUNTING. 



from the Trothy, I ran two miles down stream and got under 

 a bridge only two hundred yards from that river. I was 

 scarcely in when I saw him coming, breaking the water in his 

 huny, and bouncing bang up against my legs. Up he went, 

 again, and we then killed him — weight twenty-nine pounds.' 



When an otter is found in a narrow underground drain, the 

 best mode of bolting him is to open it at some distance from 

 its mouth ; the terrier then, with his head towards the nver, 

 comes in behind the enemy, and will probably bolt him without 

 bloodshed ; he will thus escape the punishment he is otherwise 

 sure to suffer. But, if there be running water in the drain and 

 the dog is unable to get at him, the process of drowning him 

 out, though sometimes a tedious one, is yet generally successful. 

 By cutting a trench across the drain a few feet from its mouth 

 the water is easily dammed by a heavy turf or two ; it then 

 soon rises, and, as it fills in the drain above, the otter is com- 

 pelled to bolt. The hounds of course must be kept at a 

 distance, or a chop would occur and mar the sport. The 

 modern manufactured dog, commonly called a fox terrier, is so 

 thin-skinned, and so given to fighting his own species when 

 jammed together in a hover, that I would far prefer using the 

 old-fashioned, wire-haired terrier, with no bull-dog blood in his 

 veins, to all the prize terriers of the present day ; but he must 

 be a game one to the backbone. 



But, let me add a few more words ere this paper be closed. 

 The hour of meeting in the morning cannot v/ell be too early if 

 you have young hounds to enter and only a couple or two of 

 old ones to act as pioneers; for then the fresh reeking scent, 

 unimpaired by the sun, hangs invitingly upon every weed and 

 willow touched by the otter in his night's work, and is then, of 

 course, far more attractive in its hot condition than after it has 

 been chilled by time. But, on the other hand, if your hounds 

 are veterans, experienced in their work, the period of meeting 

 may well be deferred to a later and more convenient hour. 



