CHAP. XII. | HABITS OF THE OTTER. 97 
perceiving, or, as my old keoper 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 morning 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 lay wait for the remaining otter. His 
track showed that he was a very large one, and he seemed too 
cunning for the traps. The man’s plan was to make himself a 
small hiding-place, opposite a shoal in the burn, where the otter 
must needs wade instead of swimming. We had come to the 
conviction from the tracks that the otters remained concealed 
during the day time a considerable way up the water, and hunted 
down the burn during the night to where it joined the river. 
It was a fine calm December night, with a full moon., The 
old man, wrapped in a plaid, and with a peculiar head-dress 
made of an old piece of drugget, which he always wore on occa- 
sions of this kind, took up his position at six o’clock. Before 
nine the otter was killed, having appeared, as he had calculated, 
on its way down to the river. 
This is one of the surest ways of killing this animal when he 
frequents a river or brook which in parts is so shallow as to 
oblige the otter to show himself in his nightly travels. They 
appear to go a considerable distance, generally hunting down 
the stream, and returning up to their place of concealment before 
dawn. At certain places they seem to come to land every night, 
or, at any rate, every time that they pass that way. In solitary 
and undisturbed situations I have sometimes fallen in with the 
otter during the day. Ina loch far on the hills, I have seen 
one raise itself half out of the water, take a steady look at me, 
and ther sink gradually and quietly below the surface, appearing 
a 
