96 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. XIT. 



CHAPTER XII. 



The Otter: Habits Catching of Shooting Attachment to each other 

 Anecdotes Fish killed by. 



HAVING lately seen the tracks of three or four otters about the 

 edge of the burn, I had some strong traps placed on a sand- 

 bank where they were in the nightly habit of landing. For 

 some unknown reason of their own, they appeared to leave the 

 water at this bank, and, after going round some alder bushes, to 

 return again to the pool. We placed the traps with great care, 

 fastening them strongly, and covering them with sand. Before 

 setting the trap for an otter, both the hands of the person who 

 sets it and the trap itself should be well washed and rubbed 

 with sand, in order to take away the human scent / as much as 

 possible. After setting the trap, a small branch of a free should 

 be used to smooth the ground and obliterate all footmarks, and 

 then dipping the branch in the water, the whole place should be 

 well sprinkled, which generally does away with all marks of 

 people having been about it. As otters invariably have some 

 particular points at which they leave the water, it is easy to 

 know where to place the trap. They do not, however, always 

 haunt the same part of a stream, so the trapper must have some 

 patience. After our traps had been set for two nights, we found, 

 on going to them in the morning, that an otter had been caught, 

 and by twisting the chain lound the root of a tree had contrived 

 to break it, and escape with the trap on its leg. I sent home for my 

 retriever, who, from having been severely bitten by other otters, 

 was very eager in pursuing them. We hunted up and down the 

 burn for some time in vain ; at last we found his track and that 

 of the trap in the sand at a shallow place of the water. This 

 encouraged us, and we renewed our search. At last, nearly a 

 mile from where the trap had been set, the dog began to run up 

 and down the bank, whining and showing evident symptoms of 



