OTTER-HUNTING 



ning riot, attempted to stop them, and succeeded 

 in getting hold of some of them, but the others 

 went on, and we could hear them speaking merrily 

 in the direction of the stream in the valley below. 

 We passed the huntsman, blowing his horn, with 

 a couple or two of hounds round him, and on asking 

 him what was the matter, he said hounds were 

 rioting. Seeing we did not believe him, he 

 reluctantly followed on, and to cut a long story 

 short, hounds eventually killed their otter hand- 

 somely, after dusting her up and down the stream 

 for some three-quarters of an hour. We can see 

 the expression on that huntsman's face yet, when 

 hounds collared their otter, and he was obliged to 

 acknowledge he had been in the wrong, while his 

 hounds had been right. 



Now the first lesson a huntsman, professional 

 or amateur, has to learn is to trust his hounds. If 

 he can't do this, he had better leave hunting alone, 

 and look for another job. Once your hounds 

 are properly entered, and you know their 



individual traits and idiosyncrasies, always trust 



93 



