THE OTTER. 123 



sents his angler as saying to a sportsman engaged in an 

 otter hunt, " I pray, sir, save me one, and I '11 try if I 

 can make her tame, as I know an ingenious gentleman 

 in Leicestershire, Mr. Nicholas Seagrave, has done ; 

 who hath not only made her tame, but to catch fish, 

 and do many other things of much pleasure." Such is 

 indeed far from being an uncommon instance. In one 

 case, an otter was known to take eight or ten salmon in 

 a day. 



One of the Asiatic species, it appears, may be made 

 similarly useful. " We passed, to my surprise," says 

 Bishop Heber, " a row of no less than nine or ten large 

 and very beautiful otters, tethered with straw collars and 

 long strings to bamboo stakes, on the banks of the Matta 

 Colly. Some were swimming about at the full extent 

 of their strings, or lying half in and half out of the 

 water ; others were rolling themselves in the sun on the 

 sandy bank, uttering a shrill, whistling noise, as if in 

 play. I was told that most of the fishermen in this 

 neighbourhood kept one or more of these animals, who 

 were almost as tame as dogs, and of great use in fish- 

 ing ; sometimes driving the shoals into the nets, some- 

 times bringing out the larger fish with their teeth. I 

 was much pleased and interested with the sight. It has 

 always been a fancy of mine that the poor creatures 



