CHAP. XII THE OTTER iii 



some unknown reason of their own, they appeared to leave the 

 water at this bank, and, after going round some alder bushes, 

 to return again to the pool. We placed the traps with great 

 care, fastening them strongly, and covering them with sand, 

 Before setting the trap for an otter, both the hands of the person 

 who sets it and the trap itself should be well washed and rubbed 

 with sand, in order to take away the human scent as much as 

 possible. After setting the trap, a small branch of a tree should 

 be used to smooth the ground and obliterate all footmarks,- and 

 then dipping the branch in the water, the whole place should 

 be well sprinkled, which generally does away with all marks of 

 people having been about it. As otters invariably have some 

 particular points at which they leave the water, it is easy to 

 know where to place the trap. They do not,. however, always 

 haunt the same part of a stream, so the trapper must have some 

 patience. After our traps had been set for two nights, we found, 

 on going to them in the morning, that an otter had been caught, 

 and by twisting the chain round the root of a tree had contrived 

 to break it, and escape with the trap on its leg. I sent home 

 for my retriever, who, from having been severely bitten by other 

 otters, was very eager in pursuing them. We hunted up and 

 down the burn for some time in vain ; at last we found his track 

 and that of the trap in the sand, at a shallow place of the water. 

 This encouraged us, and we renewed our search. At last, nearly 

 a mile from where the trap had been set, the dog began to run 

 up and down the bank, whining and showing evident symptoms 

 of perceiving, or, as my old keeper called it, " feeling " the smell 

 of the otter. He could not make out exactly where it was, till 

 at last coming to a dead stop opposite a quantity of floating 

 branches and roots that had collected at a turn of the water, 

 he pointed for a moment, and then springing in, pulled out a 

 large otter with the trap still on him. It was rather difficult to 

 know whether the otter was bringing the dog, or the dog the 

 otter, so vehemently did they fight and pull at each other ; but 

 we ran up, and soon put an end to the battle. The next morn- 

 ing I found another otter in the traps. Nothing could keep the 

 dog from him ; the moment he came within three hundred yards 

 of the place he smelt him, and rushed off to attack him. A 

 few nights afterwards, the moon being bright and the air quite 

 still, my keeper determined to l^y wait for the remaining otter. 



