SWIMMERS 



usually strayed by mere chance into some mink 

 or muskrat trap, concealed by freshet or rising 

 tide more successfully than its owner could ever 

 have hoped, or it has fallen to the lucky snapshot 

 of a duck or fox hunter who is hardly aware of 

 the value of his prize when he has secured it. 



But the ordinary mink or muskrat trap stands 

 but a slight chance of holding so powerful an 

 animal as an otter; while, judging from a late 

 experience of mine, a shot-gun as ordinarily 

 loaded is not much better. 



One week last winter we had a warm rain in 

 the night that carried away most of the snow, 

 and broke up the ice on the streams ; and one 

 morning I found the track of an otter within a 

 quarter of a mile of the house, evidently made 

 during the last part of the night. 



The animal had gone up-stream, and for the 

 first half mile, which was through a comparatively 

 treeless pasture, only landed two or three times ; 

 but farther on, where the stream flowed between 



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