306 THE FOOD OF OTTERS 



of his books which tells directly against the view 

 expressed above. After giving minute instructions 

 how to set a trap for an otter, and describing how he 

 'had some strong traps placed on a sandbank where 

 otters were in the nightly habit of landing/ he proceeds 

 as follows : 



' I was rather amused at an old woman living at Sluie 

 on the Findhorn, who, complaining of the hardness of the 

 present times, when a "puir body couldna get a drop 

 smuggled whisky, or shot a rae [roe] without his lordship's 

 sportsman finding it out," added to her list of grievances that 

 even the otters were nearly all gone, "puir beasties." 



'"Well, but what good could the otters do youl" I 

 asked her. 



'"Good, your honour? why scarcely a morn came but 

 they left a bonny gilse on the scarp doun yonder, and the 

 vcnnison was nane the waur of the bit the puir beasts ate 

 themselves." 



'The people here call every eatable animal "venison," or as 

 they pronounce it "vennison." For instance, they will tell 

 you that the snipes are "good vennison," or that the trout 

 are not good " vennison " in the winter.' l 



Luckily there is room in our rivers for both otters 

 and salmon; and there is far more probability of 

 salmon verging towards extinction through the drastic- 

 ally effective means of capture now in use, than there 

 is of the disappearance of so vigorous, wary, and furtive 

 a creature as Lutra vulgaris. 



Yes, furtive. It would add much to the interest of 

 a waterside ramble if one caught sight occasionally of 

 this beautiful animal. None of our native wild animals 



1 Wild Sports of the Highlands, chap. xii. 



