DECEMBER 306 



them. . . . For a moment they watched; then slid to the 

 water's edge like eels — hearkened again, turned their long 

 curved whiskers over the edge of the pool, and slipped into 

 the water. 



I could easily have shot them both during their hunt, and 

 more surely when trailing the fish up the bank, for they 

 were not thirty paces distant, and my double gun was 

 loaded with BB; bat the intense interest of their chase 

 left no other thought. . . . Seeing there was nothing more 

 to be done, I descended from my tree, and carried home the 

 salmon, which weighed twelve pounds and a half.' ^ 



I offer no excuse for quoting at so great length 

 from a work published more than seventy years ago. 

 Nowhere else have I met with so vivid and minute 

 description of otters in pursuit of their prey. It is but 

 one of many scenes in wild Highland sport related by 

 the Stuarts. 



I began by undertaking to cite but two witnesses. 

 Wishing to give the prisoner at the bar all chances in 

 his favour, I now call a third in the person of Charles 

 St. John. 



' I am daily more and more convinced,' says he, ' that the 

 otter is by no means so great an enemy to salmon as he 

 is supposed to be, his general food being trout, eels, and 

 flounders ; although of course when a salmon comes his way 

 he is sufficiently an epicure not to refuse it. An otter seldom 

 kills a salmon without leaving enough of the fish to betray 

 him, as most people who live near salmon rivers know full 

 well ; but the remains of trout and eels which he kills are 

 not BO conspicuous.' ^ 



On the other hand, St. John has a story in another 



1 Lays oft%e Deer Forest, vol. ii. pp. 269-74. Edinburgh, 1848. 

 '^ A Tour in S%Uherland, vol. ii, p. 48. London, 1849. 



U 



