THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 309 



a special correspondent at Crediton a sweep, named John 

 Bragg who being a first-rate hand with a fly rod, had also the 

 eye of a lynx for an otter's seal ; and when it was his good 

 fortune to view it freshly imprinted on a spit of sand, like a 

 clever French piqueur he w r ould accurately note the five pats of 

 the foot, being one more than those of a fox or a dog, its 

 exact size, and the direction of its course, w r hether up or down 

 stream, and then bound off for the kennels, no matter how 

 far, to convey the news so welcome to Mr. Cherriton and all 

 the country-side. 



When a fresh trail is hit on a rocky river, where a spit of 

 sand is only occasionally met with and a mud band never seen, 

 the spraints dropped on the boulders that crop up in mid-water 

 indicate with tolerable certainty the course taken by the otter 

 in his night's work. If the spraints the odour of which is 

 literally more like scented snuff than foul excrement are on 

 the lower or down-stream side of the boulder, the otter was 

 working upwards ; but if deposited on the upper side, nine 

 times out of ten it may safely be inferred that his course was a 

 downward one. The keen hunters of the north, especially in 

 Cumberland, depend much on these marks ; and while the 

 hounds are busy in carrying on a drag, and no one can tell 

 whether it is heel or not for heel too often affords the most 

 enjoyable scent then every man's eye is directed to the 

 boulders, and he who discovers the spraints shouts aloud to 

 the field ' Oop-water ' or ' Doon-water,' as the case may be. 



Also, on rapid and stony rivers, if the hounds frequently 

 land and carry the scent over the meadows and across the 

 curves of the stream, it is a sure sign that the otter has been 

 travelling upwards, and has taken the chord of the arc to avoid 

 the current and shorten the distance to his next retreat. On a 

 sluggish and meandering stream, too, he wall occasionally do 

 the same, especially if daylight be dawning, for the witches of 

 Kirk Alloway never shunned the break of day more carefully 

 than an old otter. 



A remarkable instance of three full-grown otters avoiding 



