116 THE OTTER. 



years, without seeing the daylight, for frogs and 

 lizards are plentiful here in addition to occasional 

 fish. It is further possible that, finding such 

 habitat to their liking, the otters frequenting these 

 workings might, generation by generation, become 

 more and more underground in their habits, and 

 less and less dependent on the open streams 

 finally becoming a distinct species, like the white, 

 wall-eyed trout, or like the cave-snakes about 

 which we have read so much. 



I have never heard of anything approaching a 

 species of underground otter, but such things may 

 exist if not in this country, where it is only 

 recently that the workings of man have rendered 

 such a thing likely, at any rate in countries where 

 the conditions are more favourable, and where 

 man's knowledge of nature's doings is at the best 

 superficial. 



SEA-OTTERS. 



The 'sea-otter' is often spoken of as a larger beast 

 than, and a different species from, the river-otter, 

 but to the best of my knowledge this is not so. 

 There is only one sea-otter, surviving to-day on the 

 Asiatic and American shores of the Pacific coast. 

 It is a highly specialised animal, bearing a strong 

 resemblance to the seal. In this country there is 

 only one species of otter Lutra vulgaris. The 

 commonly-spoken-of sea-otter is not a sea-otter 

 at all ; nor does that animal come within the scope 

 of this book. It is merely that an old and heavy 

 otter steers clear of the shallow waters of the river- 

 heads, limiting its hunting to the river estuaries 

 and the sea itself. Otter-hunters record that the 

 largest otters are always taken near the sea, and 

 on the rugged coasts of Scotland and the west of 



