226 THE NEW FOREST 



In the case of old dog otters concerned with 

 their affairs of love and war (for they are perfect 

 fiends at fighting with one another), very long 

 distances are covered even in a single night ; 

 but the orthodox routes are travelled. 



These habits of the otter lent themselves 

 pretty well to the hunting thereof. We used 

 to get very frequently most delightful trail 

 hunts, or " drags," where the hounds traced out 

 the wanderings of the otter through the night, 

 but sometimes the holt to which this trail led 

 lay where the steam was too small to afford a 

 good hunt or to give fair play to the otter. But 

 this did not very often happen, for the banks of 

 these same streams are lined with great forest 

 trees or ancient alders, which have positive 

 caverns of small size running under their roots 

 to a point far inland from the stream, all of 

 which communicate with each other, and afford 

 strong fortresses for the otter, even if there be a 

 depth of but a few feet of water outside their 

 portals. This, however, is quite enough to hide 

 him, if he thinks well to abandon one fortress to 

 take refuge in another. Altogether it is aston- 

 ishing to see how long a time it takes in these 

 woodland streams to bring to hand an old otter, 

 although the actual water of the river may not 

 be half a score yards in width. 



