366 



APPENDIX B. 



Otter. 



Xearly as long ago as I can remember Otters have frequented the rivers 

 Carron and Bonny, which for a considerable distance flow through my 

 home estate. Many were trapi)ed by an expert hand — Robert Finlayson, 

 our old gamekeeper — or shot by him " in the gloaming " when leaving 

 a well-known holt." We always skinned Otters here and laid the 

 pelts out flat, not pulling the skin off as is done in Shetland ; in fact, the 

 latter process is much more like skinning an eel then taking the pelt 

 oft' a mammal. 



The first lining Otter I ever saw, however, was a tamed one, taken in 

 early youthfulness and kept by one James Gleig, a Carron moulder to 

 trade. Gleig ^ used to come up to Dunipace accompanied by his tame 

 Otter, which would follow hun like a dog ; or sometimes if held by the 

 end of the tail, would progress alongside its master, running upon its fore 

 paws only. To its master it was very tame and affectionate ; and he had 

 trained it to fish in his presence for trout and eels, which it always 

 brought out of the water to the bank close to its master, and which he 

 took from it, always rewarding his pet, however, each time with a crust 

 of bread or a biscuit, which seemed to be quite satisfactory and pleasing 

 to the animal. Gleig would throw the crust into the water, and the 

 Otter, after diving into the pool, would gracefully tiirn beneath the 

 floating crust, and with exceedingly graceful and rapid motion rise 

 to and take down the crust, just as a salmon is seen at times — where the 

 circumstances are favourable — to take a salmon-fly with a rush. 



But to other persons the Otter (which I will call TopsT/, as I am well 

 assured it is the same animal which I refer to later on) was shyer and 

 never familiar, though by no means vrild or in the least timid. - 



The late Mr. Salvin, who reared and tamed many Otters, confessed 

 that he was never able to teach one to retrieve fish. Topsy, however, 

 did do so, in so far that she always brought them to the bank close 

 to her master's feet. I do not certainly remember ever seeing her fetch 

 and carry like a dog, nor carry the fish in her mouth after reaching 

 land. Some terriers, and even spaniels and raw young retriever dogs, at 

 times develop the practice of taking shot birds out of the water, but 

 leaving them whenever they get to the bank, and this becomes ex- 

 tremely annoying to the s]X)rtsman, especially if the birds be left 

 upon the op/^jsite side of an unfordable reach of river. Gleig's Otter, 



1 It was ("ileig also who shot an Osprey at Carron Ponds, which afterwards came 

 into my hands. 



- I refer to this same tame Otter in vol. i. of the series (Sutherland and Caith- 

 ness), p. 80, footnote, q.v. 



