SWIMMERS 



glance the age and sex of the creature that made 

 each mink and fox track on the snow, and how 

 long each track had been made ; but though 

 they knew that otters were killed in their 

 neighbourhood nearly every season, and that 

 they occasionally destroyed or carried off their 

 traps, they had but the vaguest idea of the 

 animal itself or its habits, nor could they describe 

 or recognise its track in the snow, though it is 

 quite unlike that made by any other creature in 

 these parts, and once seen and recognised cannot 

 be mistaken for anything else. Thoreau in his 

 diary, under date of December 6, 1856, gives 

 probably the best description ever written of 

 otter tracks. He saw them on the ice of Fair- 

 haven Pond and Concord River. After reading 

 it, one seems to have learned all that there is to 

 learn concerning the winter habits of otters. In 

 Thoreau's day, otters were evidently no more 

 abundant or generally known than at present ; 

 nor do their habits appear to have changed in 



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