296 WOOLER OTTER-HOUNDS. 



chiefly ascribed to the number of otters * which infest 

 the stream, and the shoals of fishers on the open water, 

 from one year's end to another. I have been told by a 

 veteran sportsman, that a few years back (before every 

 cobbler's apprentice who has a spare halfpenny to buy gut 

 with spends his leisure time in thrashing the water into 

 spray, and frightening the trout into hysterics, during 

 every season of the year, the depth of winter not excepted) 

 it was regarded as nothing extraordinary for a fisher 

 of ordinary skill to fill his creel with excellent trout in 



* This is owing to the bushy, sandy, and confined nature of the 

 banks, and the depth and stillness of the current ; and doubtless they 

 make very serious havoc amongst the finny tribes. It is calculated 

 that a single otter will consume no less than a ton of fish annually. 

 A small pack of otter-hounds, kept a few years ago by that accomplished 

 and spirited sportsman, Mr. John Thomson of Wooler, succeeded in 

 killing no less than twenty-one of those animals in a couple of seasons ; 

 chiefly in the Till, Tweed, and "Whitadder ; which would for a time 

 materially thin the ranks of these amphibious poachers ; and consider- 

 ing that he was the means of saving between thirty and forty tons of 

 living fish from destruction in two years, besides affording those who 

 chose to accompany him a vast amount of the most exciting sport, I 

 think he was entitled to the gratitude of every angler in the district. 

 But now, since the pack are discontinued, those depredators will be 

 probably getting as numerous as ever. 



I have been told that the otter prefers the pike to any other fish, 

 and if he confines his ravages to these aquatic devastators of our 

 streams, he will rather be a friend than an enemy to the trout-fisher. 

 But I am rather afraid that Master Otter will regard all as " fish that 

 comes into his net," and treat them accordingly ; and that he will not 

 be scrupulous enough on this point to pass by a fine trout without 

 molestation. I have seen the remains of trout, on many occasions, 

 lying upon the banks, close by the side of pools abounding in pike, 

 which had evidently formed part of an otter's nocturnal repast. 



