DECEMBER 301 



and I have seen the otter turning over the stones with his 

 nose. Under nearly every stone there was an eel or two — 

 worse luck for them ! He would retrieve a stick out of the 

 waijer, no matter how rapid was the current.' 



All this goes to confirm the otter-hunter's doctrine 

 that their client is so fond of eels and frogs as to be 

 indifferent to salmon, which are far more difficult to 

 catch, and that the presence of otters in a salmon river 

 may be tolerated, even encouraged, by salmon-fishers. 



Audi alteram, partem. 1 put in the witness-box 

 that remarkable pair of brothers, John Sobieski Stuart 

 (1795-1872) and Charles Edward Stuart (1799-1880), 

 who claimed legitimate descent from Prince Charles 

 Edward, and whose tomb is at Eskadale on the Beauly. 

 Their evidence is given in The Lays of the Deer Forest,^ 

 a book now well-nigh forgotten, but one that deserves 

 a place in every sportsman's and naturalist's library, 

 not for any merit in the Lays themselves (upon which, 

 having refrained from reading them, I scarcely feel 

 justified in expressing an opinion), but for the wealth 

 of original observation recorded in the notes which 

 entirely fill the second volume. The incident described 

 took place on the Findhorn, than which I have never 

 fished a wilder or more romantic Scottish river. 



' In mentioning this brave, beautiful, and intelligent beast 

 [the otter] among the " rascals," it is entirely against our own 

 feelings, in compliance with the received laws of woodcraft, 

 and because we cannot by our veto change the custom of 

 seven hundred years. But the courage, talents, and activity 

 of the animal — the beauty, and sometimes splendour of the 

 scenery in his haunts — the exquisite music of the hounds, 



^ Published by Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1848. 



