sliding pastime. They glided down the soap-like, muddy surface of the slide with
the rapidity of an arrow from a bow, and we counted each one making twenty-
two slides before we disturbed their sportive occupation.
' This habit,’ he adds, ‘ of sliding down from elevated places to the borders
of streams is not confined to cold countries, or to slides on the snow and ice,
but is pursued also in the Southern States, where the ground is seldom covered
with snow or the waters frozen over.’
Apparently the pleasures of this game appeal to them quite as much as to
man, as exemplified by the Canadian-Chinaman’s remark, ‘Whizz, whizz, walkee
back a mile.’
Mr. James Parke, writing from Masham, Yorkshire,1 Says that he had been
told of an ‘ Otter slide’ down a soft muddy bank in Wensleydale, ‘ but have not
heard whether it has ever been used for recreation.’ After repeated inquiries I
have not heard of any authentic sliding place in our islands; yet it is strange if
such places do not exist, for the habits of British and Canadian Otters are
identical. I have seen many bank slopes where Otters undoubtedly exist, quite
similar to those in Newfoundland and Canada which are used for this purpose,
but with no signs of their having been used as a playground. The absence of
these in our islands may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that Otters are
much shyer in our waters, and rarely show themselves for sport and play.2
The maternal instinct is very strong in this species, and there are several
instances of female Otters attacking dogs in defence of their young.8 The following
touching instance of their affection for their progeny is worth quoting4:
‘ About four years ago, and at the end of February, Freeman, the head
gamekeeper at Bendrigg, Westmorland, to Sir Henry Bentinck, was ferreting some
burrows near a brook that runs through the estate when a young Otter bolted
from a hole, and almost before the shooters knew what it was the little thing
was unfortunately killed. It was about 4 lb. weight. Shortly after the old
Otter came out, and another cub, which were, of course, allowed to escape.
Although the party were shooting round about the place the remainder of the day
the dam of the poor dead cub never left the neighbourhood, re-entering the
1 Zoologistj December 1894, p. 457.
* In reply to a letter from me on this point Mr. Gerald Lascelles confirms this view. ‘ The explanation,’ he says, ‘ that
occurs to me is that in this country Otters breed where people so constantly pass that they are very suspicious, and careful
to leave as little trace as possible. Moreover, as soon as the cubs are about one-third grown they, with the dam, become
wanderers up and down the streams, not remaining anywhere long enough to leave much sign.’
* Field, 1898, pp. 180, 242, 601. 4 R. B. L., Field, January 30, 1904.
T
burrow and continually calling in the peculiar whistling tones common to the
Otter when it has lost its matep|f its young, ggjgjs, the case in this instance.’
There are,: £5 in the above case, numerous examples of Otters, being bolted
from rabbit-holes by ferrets.1 *
'I'he trail of the Otter in deep snow is a curious one, unlike that made by
any other animal, for no footmarks are visible: it looks more as if a log of wood
had been dragged along than the spoor of some vanished quadruped. Here and
there are gaps when the Otter has made a little spring, but there are no footprints
to be seen, as the b o d |i..^M close to the saOjn that it obliterates these in
its passage.
H u n tin g—There are various ways of hunting the Otter, and many of them
reprehensible:,: It may be tracked in the snow toTts cairn, bolted with terriers
and S p t , or searched for and ousted with terriers, as H the custom in the
Hebrides and Northern Isles, The terrier hunting is great fun, but in all this*
cases it must be admitted an unfair advantage is being taken of the beast for
the .sake of his skin, for the only fair way to chase the Otter i iw ith a pack of
hounds.
Otter hunting in l| | legitimate sende,.has been classed with bull baiting, bear
baiting, cockfighting and badger baiting, and designated as: ‘ Glorified R atting;’
but those who have taken up the pen to condemn it evidently Write in complete
ignorance of the science, for there is no British sport, except salmon fishing, in
which the purely natural pleasures of the chase are so predominant or in which
l | i little cruelty is practised. Added to this, in four cases out of six the Otter
escapes, and an exciting hunt without a kill is generally the order of the day.3
Blank days are very common. That famous sportsman Parson Jack Russell,
referring j| f the time in which he started a pack of Otter-hounds, has said: *T,
walked three thousand miles without finding a single Otter. I must have'passed
over scores, but I might as well have .searched for a moose-deer.’ But then he
had no hounds that would take the line of an Otter.
The great charm in Otter hunting consists in the beautiful surroundings into
which it draws the follower, and the pleasure o f seeing: hounds work out a line
from start to finish. Otters are followed and eventually killed by a knowledge
of the creature’s habits, and this in itself forms one of the chief attractions to all
1 R- B. L. See Field, January 2, 1904, and Shooting Times, January 1896.
8 During forty-six days’ hunting by Mr. Buckley’s Otter-hounds in North Wales thirty-six Otters were found, of which
sixteen were killed. This may be taken as a good average.