134 THE OTTER. 



possible, the process should be carried out from a 

 boat, as the animal becomes very wary immedi- 

 ately on encountering the scent of man. Attach 

 the chain of the trap to a stake driven vertically 

 into a part of the bed below deep water. The 

 chain should have an iron ring, a loose fit over the 

 stake, at its extremity. The stake is trunnied (so 

 that the ring can slide freely down it), except for 

 two snags left near its pointed end. The first of 

 these snags is short, so that the ring will readily 

 slide over it, but the second is employed to pre- 

 vent the ring sliding off the end of the stake when, 

 at the close of the operations, the stake is pulled 

 up, in order that the trap may be retrieved. 



Caught in the trap, the otter attempts to ascend 

 the bank, but, unable to do so, it makes for the 

 deep water. At this juncture the ring slides down 

 the stake and becomes hitched beneath the first 

 snag, so that the otter is unable to regain the 

 bank. The weight of the trap speedily pulls the 

 victim under, and it is drowned within a short time 

 of encountering the jaws. The dead otter is re- 

 trieved from the water by pulling up the stake, 

 which need not be very firmly driven in, the ring 

 hitching up on the bottom snag. 



It need not be added that the occasions when 

 the trapping of an otter is in any way excusable 

 are few and far between. 



FOOD. 



Many a time has the otter been accused of 

 murders he has never committed ; and I remember 

 a farm-labourer killing one of these poor creatures 

 he found asleep on a tree-trunk because, he said, 

 they were worse than foxes for killing lambs. 

 That isolated cases are on record of the otter as a 



