332 THE OTTER. 



that a six or seven miles' chase is nothing uncommon. 

 It must have taken the fowmarte nearly the whole night 

 to have travelled this distance, and he is generally snug 

 in his retreat many hours before the hounds are even laid 

 on his track. A true otter-hound will, however, catch the 

 scent immediately, if his game has been on the ground 

 or in the river the previous night. The real breed, sup- 

 posed to be a cross between the old English hound and 

 a rough terrier, is very rare. They have shaggy coats 

 of coarse wiry hair, but smooth heads and ears ; in 

 fact, a hound's head with a rough coat fit for the water. 

 Most that we see now are either altogether rough or 

 smooth. There is no dog more takes my fancy than 

 one of these ancient thorough-bred otter-hounds. His 

 weird look of hoar antiquity always associates him with 

 " grisly eld ; " and his characteristic method of working 

 his amphibious quarry adds to the interest his appearance 

 creates. 



Terriers are best in rocky cavernous places, and seldom 

 fail to make the otter bolt if they can get near him. 

 From the abundance of prey, these sea-haunting otters 

 grow to a great size ; inland ones frequenting heavy 

 dead water, where fish abound, are often large also. A 

 remarkably fine specimen of a fresh-water otter was 

 trapped a few winters ago on the Thames, above Henley, 

 by a keeper who sold him to me for a trifle. About as 

 large a dog-otter, though not in such sleek order, was run 

 down by the Duke of Atholl's otter-hounds last summer. 

 The difference of condition in these otters, no doubt, arose 



