Concord, Mass.
1910.
Sept. 26
(No 2)
[September 26, 1910]

An Otter(?) in the river at Ball's Hill

  Whenever during this month the evenings have been still
and warm I have rarely failed to hear, between eight and ten
o'clock, some creature making a great splashing in the river
directly in front of the cabin. The sound is fully equal to
that which a large dog would make by leaping well out from
shore into deep water. Usually there is but a single splash
at a time followed, after an interval of half a minute or
more by another with still others at equally long intervals. From
this I have inferred that the beast is engaged in diving and
that it must leap well out of water just before taking the
downward plunge. I heard it to excellent advantage only a
few minutes before I began writing these lines. If I go out of
the cabin the sound invariably ceases & seldom is resumed 
again that night. This leads me to conclude that the creature
is rather shy or timid. I think it must be an Otter.
Certainly it is something aquatic and very much larger, & heavier, and
more active, than a musk rat.