From Fox's Earth 



to feed. It may be an old otter, less able to fend 

 for himself than he was wont to be, lived on the 

 leavings of the more vigorous. Yet Sutherland 

 remains what it has been the paradise of the 

 salmon fisher. No otter-haunted stream is ever 

 short of fish, and of game fish, too, which make 

 ever so much better sport. No true angler 

 grudges a share, but looks on the otter as an 

 ally rather than a rival. Nor would a life 

 spent in the search for frogs, or even in the 

 pursuit of the weak and diseased, have called 

 forth the marvellous dexterity in the water. 



Like most game animals, it probably rejoices in 

 the putting forth of its power, and enjoys the pursuit 

 as a prelude to the kill. To this end it will choose 

 the fittest, with the promise of the longest and 

 most baffling chase. It would have no quarrel with 

 some other creature that kept the fish still fitter. 

 Were speed and resource useless, half the zest of 

 the day's existence would be gone. It is as much 

 a sporting animal as the angler on the shore. It 

 has been seen lying quite still on the water as 

 though watching for the rise of the salmon after 

 the manner of a seal. All this prepares it for a 

 further destiny. 



Not so long ago otter-hunting in Scotland 

 rested on the enthusiasm of one man. When 

 unexpectedly he turned up with his following at 

 some stream for he had the whole country to 

 himself, and was a good deal of a nomad the 



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