112 THE OTTER. 



over the steel-girder bridges, and the lights of 

 'garret and basement' quiver far out on the oily 

 flood. How many tired-eyed Londoners whose 

 windows overlook the great Thames realise that 

 while they sleep this creature, the otter, usually 

 associated only with the rugged grandeur of High- 

 land burns or the silent, dew-spangled meadows of 

 the far-away, passes them almost nightly on its 

 way to a happier hunting-ground? Yet all the 

 otters of the upper Thames and there are many 

 have probably passed through the lights of London 

 at one time or another on their lifelong wanderings. 

 Away up the river they go, dallying only here 

 and there, till that which was once a mighty tidal 

 water, bearing the trading-vessels of many nations 

 upon its bosom, becomes a tiny trickling brook, 

 too shallow now to afford fishing and shelter for 

 the wanderer. The otter then leaves the water at 

 a chosen place, and makes the best of its way over 

 the watershed to the source of some neighbouring 

 river, which it follows to the sea. 



SYSTEMATIC HABITS. 



The otters have recognised runways by which 

 they pass from the head- waters of one river they 

 frequent over to the head- waters of the next, and 

 just as it is said that if a bear crosses a certain 

 creek at a certain place, any bear following, even 

 ten years later, will cross at exactly the same 

 place so the otters tread in each other's footsteps 

 generation after generation. Thus, if an otter 

 leaves the stream at a certain tree and begins to 

 make its way overland, it may be taken that every 

 succeeding otter will leave the water at the same 

 tree and make use of the same runway. In 

 Canada the professional trappers know the otter 



