122 THE OTTER. 



the presence of the otter in the river below had no 

 little to do with the isolation of the vole's chosen 

 sanctuary. Anyway, there it was, in a snug little 

 burrow having its exit below the ice-line of the 

 pool, and its entrance under a dense entangle- 

 ment of briar and dead bracken in the bank 

 above. 



But alas for the most carefully laid plans of 

 mice and men ! True that it lived in immunity 

 from the flood, which never came, anyway ; but 

 one day, in visiting the pool, I found that the otter 

 had been there too. It had laid waste the bank 

 burrow, and evidently hunted the pool for the 

 vole, which had escaped by the back-way, but 

 whether or not its efforts had been crowned with 

 success I could not ascertain. 



On the other hand, I have known water-voles 

 to live and have their families during the summer 

 months in parts of the river much frequented 

 by otters, and I doubt very much whether in 

 the ordinary way the attitude between otters and 

 voles is otherwise than one of alert neutrality. 



To turn to a cognate topic for a moment : it is a 

 curious fact that in Canada the otters and the 

 beavers live on the most friendly terms ; in fact, the 

 otter is known to go out of its way in order to 

 share the habitat of the beaver. Where there are 

 beavers, trappers are fairly sure of finding an 

 otter or two ; and where there are no beavers, 

 the recognised way of drawing otters to the locality 

 of the traps is by the use of beaver castor. The 

 castor is generally placed on a stick just above 

 the trap, which is set near to one of the recognised 

 otter landings or slides. 



In countries where the winters are consistently 

 severe, the otters do not appear to fare badly. 



