THE OTTEK. 135 



lamb-killer I do not doubt ; yet one can live in the 

 midst of otter country all one's life, seeing the 

 traces of their habits every day, and come across 

 no single instance of destructiveness to the pro- 

 perty of man. Fish are the otter's birthright, 

 and while it follows that where there are many 

 fish there are naturally many otters, it may be 

 asked, How can this be so if otters are so destruc- 

 tive to our fisheries? I know of certain small 

 lochs which are swarming with trout, and yet 

 which never harbour less than two otters ; and 

 the fact remains that fish maintain their numbers 

 so long as there are only otters to hunt them. 



The fact of the matter is that otters do more 

 good to our fisheries than they do harm firstly, 

 by destroying the eels, their favourite diet ; and, 

 secondly, by killing off the older generation of 

 trout. These trout, if not killed off, become 

 cannibals, each one of them destroying vast 

 numbers of the rising generation of its own kind. 

 The monster lies in the depth of the pool, never 

 rising to a fly, and doing nothing to warrant its 

 existence or to counterbalance the harm it does. 

 Nature can keep pace with the requirements of 

 the otter, and it is only when man steps in that 

 her whole balance is upset. I know certain lochs 

 which used to afford the most excellent fishing 

 when only a few of us and several otters fished 

 them ; but now that hatcheries have been set 

 up, restrictions laid down, and the otters driven 

 away, the fish have either become small and too 

 numerous, or large and given over to cannibalism, 

 so that the fishing, once excellent in its wild state, 

 is worthless in its new. Indeed, I am of the 

 opinion that if some of the carefully stocked and 

 preserved reservoirs of the south of England were 



