OTTERS. 133 



easily have added a dish of broiled fish to the cold collation 

 Uiat was being spread before us. Having done ample justice 

 to the comestibles, and beverages cooled in the stream, after 

 the usual pipe we prepared to make a fresh attack on the 

 leathered denizens of the jungle. Although the quantity of 

 ;iinmunition expended was perhaps greater after lunch than 

 before it, the amount of the bag, I fear, was, as it often is 

 under similar circumstances, in the opposite ratio. 



Towards evening my place in the line led me along a 

 bank overhanging the stream, when I suddenly heard an 

 unearthly skirling noise at the water's edge below me. On 

 looking over, I found it proceeded from two young otters 

 figliting over a fish. They were so taken up with their 

 (juarrel that they did not notice me until I had jumped 

 down and collared one of them, like a ferret, round the neck. 

 The other at once took to the water; but this being quite 

 sliallow for some distance, after depositing my gun I was 

 able to give chase, and succeeded in heading the little beast 

 before it reached the stream, and driving it back on to the 

 shore, where I soon got hold of it, like its companion, with 

 the other hand. The difficulty now was how to get rid of 

 the struggling little wretches without either being bitten by 

 them or letting them escape ; for although they were not 

 much bigger than ferrets, they were exceedingly strong, and 

 their jaws were well provided with sharp teeth. The only 

 thing we could devise for carrying them was a kind of bag 

 made of one of the beater's turbans. Into this they were 



; dropped, and slung over a man's back ; and judging from 

 the noises that issued from the bag, they seemed still to be 



parrying on their feud even there. After beating back to 

 where we had left our ponies, we cantered home, well 

 satisfied with our varied bag and our pleasant day's sport. 

 The two otters eventually became tame enough to play 



^ about the house, although they would never permit them- 

 selves to be freely handled. 



But alas ! in the Dehra Doon at any rate, such halcyon 



