THE BOOK OF THE OTTER 



and often long cross-country journeys undertaken 

 by otters, one must track them in the snow. On 

 one occasion such a trail led us for a good ten 

 miles overland, the otter having left a stream, 

 and made his way uphill via a small runner. The 

 latter petered out in the open ground, but the trail 

 led on in the direction of a frozen reservoir. 

 Round this the otter had gone, then he followed 

 the stream from the outlet for some distance, after 

 which he turned straight across country. Three 

 or four big stone walls had then intervened, but 

 the otter — which had probably been over the same 

 route before — made straight to certain smoots, and 

 passed through with no unnecessary searching for 

 a way out. He then visited a small lake, also 

 frozen, and again took to the outlet stream, down 

 which he went until he arrived at the main river. 

 It must have been a pretty hard trip for so short- 

 legged an animal, for the otter left a furrow in 

 the snow which was quite deep. From the point 

 where he left the stream where we picked up his 



tracks, to the spot where the trail entered the main 



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