108 THE OTTER. 



them. Be that as it may, the poaching of salmon 

 amounts almost to a religious duty with my old 

 acquaintance, and on the night in question he was 

 resorting to a most illegal device namely, ' burning 

 the water.' This consists in throwing a light on to 

 the surface of the water ; then, as the fish hoves in 

 view, attracted perhaps, like a moth, by the light, 

 the poacher strikes a large gaff into its body, and 

 hauls the kingly monster ashore. 



But Ronald knew where the salmon were, and 

 the light was good enough for him to dispense 

 with any illumination. Approaching the shallow 

 spawning ' redd,' his keen eyes located a veritable 

 leviathan, and wading in behind it, Ronald began to 

 stalk slowly upstream, his eyes on the salmon, his 

 folding cleek in his hand. He was within a yard 

 or so of his target, and in the very act of striking, 

 when a movement at his feet arrested him, and 

 looking down, he saw two green eyes, flaming with 

 hunting lust, peering up into his ! Also he saw a 

 very vicious face and a dark outline almost touching 

 him, for the otter was in the act of stalking the 

 same salmon, and, like Ronald, was so much 

 absorbed in the stalk that it had never noticed 

 the rival angler ! 



With a yell Ronald fled for the bank, crying out 

 that the ' devil was in the water ; ' while in the 

 opposite direction, as much scared as he, fled the 

 otter. 



One evening, when I was fishing on the Tweed, 

 an otter reared itself high out of the water within 

 two yards of me, its head and shoulders appearing 

 well above the surface ; then, having taken a long 

 and fearless look, it slowly sank, and reappeared 

 about thirty yards away, only its head up this time, 

 to look again. This it did time after time, working 



