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"It seems that a few years ago, before the otters had been so much destroyed, the people in particular parts of the river were never at a loss for salmon, as the otters always took them ashore, generally to the same bank or rock, and in seasons of plenty, they only eat a small piece out of the shoulder, leaving the rest untouched, and the cottagers, aware of this, searched every morning for their leavings."
To breathe the fresh forest air to range deserts where man was not to be seen to pursue the wild deer and buffalo to trap the bear and the wolf, or beside the still pond, or the unexplored stream, to catch otters and beavers to bring down the wild turkey from the summit of the highest trees; such were the congenial pursuits in which he delighted.
Low, and of Jemmy Button, it is certainly true, that when pressed in winter by hunger they kill and devour their old women before they kill their dogs: the boy, being asked by Mr. Low why they did this, answered, "Doggies catch otters, old women no."
The fund for these rewards is a tax of sixpence in the pound, imposed by the farmers on themselves, and said to be paid with great willingness. The beasts of prey in the Islands are foxes, otters, and weasels. The foxes are bigger than those of England; but the otters exceed ours in a far greater proportion.
Food was all about them an unlimited abundance of lily-roots and clams; and once in awhile their diet was varied by the capture of a half-torpid sucker or chub. There were no otters in Bitter Creek; and the mink, which had investigated their water-gate so hungrily, got caught in a trap at an open spring up-stream, where he was accustomed to fish for eels.
I had expected something so totally different that he caught me with surprise, and I looked up sharply. "Shows how lonely this place is. Otters are awfully shy things " "I don't mean that, of course," he interrupted. "I mean do you think did you think it really was an otter?" "What else, in the name of Heaven, what else?"
"Well," went on Uncle Andy, "just because those level-headed old otters were always ready for it, nothing happened. You'd better make a note of that. If you are always ready for trouble when the other fellow makes it, he will be pretty shy about beginning. That's why the foxes and the weasels and the minks never came around.
It is probable that their numbers are considerably thinned by the otters, which are much larger than those of Europe. In going through the overflowed savannas, which have all a communication with the river, you may often see a dozen or two of them sporting amongst the sedges before you.
"Duck him," advised Mother Otter, "duck him. There is no other way to teach a little bear to swim." And away she went, down the stream, intending to overtake Father Otter. The little Otters kept looking back, hoping to see Father Bear toss Little Bear into the river. But Mother Bear begged him not to teach Little Bear to swim that day, and so the little Otters missed the fun.
It may be interesting to give a few particulars concerning the traceable ancestors of the modern Dandie. In Mr. Charles Cook's book on this breed, we are given particulars of one William Allan, of Holystone, born in 1704, and known as Piper Allan, and celebrated as a hunter of otters and foxes, and for his strain of rough-haired terriers who so ably assisted him in the chase.
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