BRITISH MAMMALS 



Man's consciousness of evil or well-doing, of dreams that 

 have not come true, baffles the greatest philosophers and 

 seers, and had we not faith in the unwritten law that 

 controls, regulates and fashions human life and en- 

 deavour, all would assuredly be lost. After all there is 

 magic and mystery about this precious thing called life, 

 and we must have abundant faith in a higher power which 

 our inner consciousness tells us will triumph in the end. 

 But we must direct our energies in the right path, and 

 to the best of our abiUty. Duty, misapplied word, should 

 be indelibly stamped upon the forehead of every good 

 citizen, and in concluding our brief exploration into the 

 realm of psychology, we may quote an old Latin epigram, 

 which reads thus : "In essentials unity, in doubtful 

 questions Uberty; in all things charity." Some there 

 may be who will accuse us of sentimentalism in writing 

 as we have done, of introducing a matter which is out of 

 place in a popular scientific treatise devoted to mammal 

 life, but these comparisons between earth-creatures and 

 human folk are of supreme interest, and form basic 

 principles upon which the whole concept of existence is 

 built up. 



To return to concrete facts, after this divergence, 

 brings us again to the animal under review (Fig. 24), 

 which, it should be noted, is mostly an inhabitant of our 

 northern estuaries, though we recently had an authentic 

 record of its occurrence on the Wye in Herefordshire. 

 Sometimes it even travels as far as the Thames, and, 



when seen, always provides a crowd of curious sight- 

 110 



