e 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