"How greedily
They snuff the fishy steam, that to each blade
Rank scenting clings! See! how the morning dews
They sweep, that from their feet besprinkling drop
Dispersed, and leave a track oblique behind.
Now on firm land they range, then in the flood
They plunge tumultuous; or through reedy pools
Rustling they work their way; no holt escapes
Their curious search. With quick sensation now
The fuming vapour stings; flutter their hearts,
And joy redoubled bursts from every mouth
In louder symphonies. Yon hollow trunk,
That with its hoary head incurv'd salutes
The passing wave, must be the tyrant's fort
And dread abode. How these impatient climb,
While others at the root incessant bay!--
They put him down."--SOMERVILLE.
The above is an animated and beautiful description of an otter hunt,
an old English sport fast falling into disuse, and the breed of the
real otter-hound is either extinct or very nearly so. In stating this,
I am aware that there are still many dogs which are called
otter-hounds; but it may be doubted whether they possess that peculiar
formation which belongs exclusively to the true breed. Few things in
nature are more curious and interesting than this formation, and it
shows forcibly how beautifully everything has been arranged for the
instincts and several habits of animals. The true otter-hound is
completely web-footed, even to the roots of its claws; thus enabling
it to swim with much greater facility and swiftness than other dogs.
But it has another extraordinary formation; the ear possesses a sort
of flap, which covering the aperture excludes the entrance of the
water, and thus the dog is enabled to dive after the otter without
that inconvenience which it would otherwise experience. The Earl of
Cadogan has, what his Lordship considers, the last of the breed of the
true otter-hound. It was a present from Sir Walter Scott. Lord Cadogan
offered one hundred pounds for another dog of the same breed, but of a
different sex; but I believe without being able to procure one with
those true marks which are confined to the authentic breed. A gipsy
was, indeed, said to have possessed one, but he refused to part with
it.
Those who saw the exhibition of pictures in the Royal Academy in 1844
will recollect a large, interesting, and beautiful picture by Sir
Edwin Landseer of a pack of otter-hounds. The picture describes the
hunt at the time of the termination of the chase and the capture of
the otter. The animal is impaled on the huntsman's spear, while the
rough, shaggy, and picturesque-looking pack are represented with eyes
intently fixed on the amphibious beast, and howling in uncouth chorus
round their agonized and dying prey.
An otter-hunt is a cheerful and inspiriting sport, and it is still
carried on in some of the lakes of Cumberland. Indeed, as lately as
the year 1844, a pack of otter-hounds was advertised in the newspapers
to be sold by private contract. The alleged cause of the owner's
parting with them was in consequence of their having cleared the
rivers of three counties (Staffordshire being one) of all the otters,
and the number captured and killed in the last few years was
mentioned. "Good otter-hounds," as an old writer observes, "will come
chanting, and trail along by the river-side, and will beat every
tree-root, every osier-bed, and tuft of bulrushes; nay, sometimes they
will take the water and beat it like a spaniel, and by these means the
otter can hardly escape you." The otter swims and dives with great
celerity, and in doing the latter it throws up _sprots_, or
air-bubbles, which enable the hunters to ascertain where it is, and to
spear it. The best time to find it is early in the morning. It may
frequently be traced by the dead fish and fish-bones strewed along the
banks of the river. The prints, also, of the animal's feet, called
his _seal_, are of a peculiar formation, and thus it is readily
traced. The otter preys during the night, and conceals himself in the
daytime under the banks of lakes and rivers, where he generally forms
a kind of subterraneous gallery, running for several yards parallel to
the water's edge, so that if he should be assailed from one end, he
flies to the other. When he takes to the water, it is necessary that
those who have otter-spears should watch the bubbles, for he generally
vents near them. When the otter is seized, or upon the point of being
caught by the hounds, he turns upon his pursuers with the utmost
ferocity. Instances are recorded of dogs having been drowned by
otters, which they had seized under water, for they can sustain the
want of respiration for a much longer time than the dog.
Mr. Daniell, in his "Rural Sports," remarks that hunting the otter was
formerly considered as excellent sport, and that hounds were kept
solely for that purpose. The sportsmen went on each side of the river,
beating the banks and sedges with the dogs. If an otter was not soon
found, it was supposed that he had gone to _couch_ more inland, and
was sought for accordingly. If one was found, the sportsmen viewed his
track in the mud, to find which way he had taken.
"On the soft sand,
See there his seal impress'd! And on that bank
Behold the glitt'ring spoils, half-eaten fish,
Scales, fins, and bones, the leavings of his feast."
The spears were used in aid of the dogs. When an otter is wounded, he
makes directly to land, where he maintains an obstinate defence:--
"Lo! to yon sedgy bank
He creeps disconsolate; his numerous foes
Surround him, hounds and men. Pierc'd through and through,
On pointed spears they lift him high in air;
Bid the loud horns, in gaily warbling strains,
Proclaim the spoiler's fate: he dies, he dies."
The male otter never makes any complaint when seized by the dogs, or
even when transfixed with a spear, but the females emit a very shrill
squeal. In the year 1796, near Bridgenorth, on the river Wherfe, four
otters were killed. One stood three, another four hours before the
dogs, and was scarcely a minute out of sight. In April 1804, the
otter-hounds of Mr. Coleman, of Leominster, killed an otter of
extraordinary size. It measured from the nose to the end of the tail,
four feet ten inches, and weighed thirty-four and a half pounds. This
animal was supposed to be eight years old, and to have destroyed for
the last five years a ton of fish annually. The destruction of fish by
this animal is, indeed, very great, for he will eat none unless it be
perfectly fresh, and what he takes himself. By his mode of eating them
he causes a still greater consumption, for so soon as an otter catches
a fish he drags it on shore, devours it to the vent, and, unless
pressed by extreme hunger, always leaves the remainder, and takes to
the water in search of more. In rivers it is always observed to swim
against the stream, in order to meet its prey.
Otters bite very severely, and they will seize upon a dog with the
utmost ferocity, and will shake it as a terrier does a rat. The jaws
of the otter are so constructed, that even when dead it is difficult
to separate them, as they adhere with the utmost tenacity. Otters are
frequently found on the banks of the Thames, and a large one was
caught in an eel-basket, near Windsor, but the hunting of them is
discontinued.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: GREYHOUNDS.]