THE OTTER AND HIS WAYS. 301 



thus probably instructs them how partially to support them- 

 selves before they are able to stem the currents in which their 

 slippery and more active prey can alone be found. 



At the same time small brooks, often high up in mountain- 

 ous districts, are almost invariably chosen by the dam as the 

 quarters best suited for laying up her young. For there, at the 

 very source of perhaps our biggest rivers, Nature has provided 

 her with an ample supply of the daintiest food — the fry of trout 

 and salmon ; and there, the currents being gentle compared 

 with the force of those below, the young can be better trusted 

 to learn their first lessons in the work of life, namely, self- 

 maintenance and self-preservation. 



For the following most interesting communication on the 

 natural history of the otter I am indebted to my friend, the late 

 Mr. Trelawny of Coldrenick, and I have his authority for stating 

 that Mr. Shaw, who vouches for his labourer's veracity, is a 

 gentleman worthy of all credit. The letter written by Mr. Shaw 

 from Trelowarren, the seat of Sir Richard R. Vyvyan, Bart, 

 was addressed to Mr. Trelawny ; it runs thus : 



Knowing you to be a great otter hunter in that dull time of the 

 year which poets praise so much, I trust the following account 

 which has just been related to me may not prove uninteresting to 

 you ; and I believe I can thoroughly vouch for its authenticity, 

 having questioned the narrator very minutely about it. He (one 

 of our labourers here), on his way to his work on Wednesday last, 

 soon after five o'clock in the morning, saw a quantity of animals 

 coming along the road towards him, and stood very quietly by the 

 hedge till they came broadside of him. He then perceived they 

 were otters, four old ones,^ and he thinks very little less, if at all, 

 than twenty young ones. He had nothing in his hand at the time, 

 but, as quickly as he could, he got a stick out of the hedge and struck 

 one of the young ones and ultimately killed it. The moment the 

 young one began to squeak, all four old ones came back and stood 

 grizzling, as he terms it, against him, till all the young ones had 

 escaped through the hedge, and then went quietly off" themselves, 

 he being afraid to attack them. I have just weighed the one 



' The four old ones were doubtless four females ; for the dog-otter is rarely, 

 if ever, found in company with the dam and her young ones. 



