THE OTTER AND CHUB. 89 



us compliment no longer, but join unto them. Come, honest 

 Venator, let us be gone, let us make haste : I long to be 

 doing ; no reasonable hedge or ditch shall hold me. 



VEN, Gentleman-huntsman, where found you this otter ? 



HUNT. Marry, Sir, we found her a mile from this place, 

 a-fishing. She has this morning eaten the greatest part of 

 this trout ; she has only left thus much of it as you see, and 

 was fishing for more : when we came we found her just at 

 it ; but we were here very early, we were here an hour before 

 sunrise, and have given her no rest since we came; sure, she 

 will hardly escape all these dogs and men. I am to have 

 the skin if we kill her. 



VEN. Why, Sir, what is the skin worth ? 



HUNT. It is worth ten shillings to make gloves : the 

 gloves of an otter are the best fortification for your hands 

 that can be thought on against wet weather. 



PlSC. I pray, honest huntsman, let me ask you a pleasant 

 question : do you hunt a beast or a fish ? 2 



HUNT. Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you; I leave 

 it to be resolved by the college of Carthusians, who have 

 made vows never to eat flesh. But I have heard the ques- 

 tion hath been debated among many great clerks, and they 

 seem to differ about it ; yet most agree that her tail is fish; 

 and if her body be fish too, then I may say that a fish will 

 walk upon land ; for an otter does so, sometimes, five or six 

 or ten miles in a night, to catch for her young ones, or to 

 glut herself with fish. And I can tell you that pigeons will 

 fly forty miles for a breakfast ; 3 but, Sir, I am sure the otter 

 devours much fish, and kills and spoils much more than he 

 eats. And I can tell you that this dog-fisher, for so the 

 Latins call him, can smell a fish in the water a hundred 



