scarp down yonder, and the vennison was none the
worse of the bit the puir beasts ate themselves,' The people here
(Morayshire) call every eatable animal, fish, flesh, or fowl, venison,
or as they pronounce it, vennison. For instance, they tell you that the
snipes are good vennison, or that the trout are not good vennison in the
winter.

"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."

"Otters," continues Mr. St. John, "are very affectionate animals; the
young anxiously seek their mother, if she should be killed; and if the
young are injured, the parent hovers near them till she is herself
destroyed. If one of a pair be killed, the one that is left will hunt
for its mate with untiring perseverance; and if one be caught in a trap,
its companion will run round and round, endeavouring to set it free, on
which occasions, though so quiet at other times, they make a snorting
and blowing like a horse."

A dog belonging to the above gentleman was running and splashing through
the shallow water, and suddenly stood still, sometimes whining, as if
caught in a trap, and then biting furiously at something in the water.
He was called by his master, but as he did not obey, his master waded to
him, and found a large otter, holding on by his powerful jaws to the
dog's shoulder; and had he not had a good covering of curly hair, he
stood a chance of having his leg broken, the bite was so severe.

The people in Scotland believe that the otters have a king, or leader,
which is larger than others, and spotted with white. They also believe
that when these animals are killed, a man or another of the brute kind
dies suddenly at the same moment; that their skin possesses an antidote
to infection, preserves soldiers from wounds, and saves sailors from
disasters at sea. The darkness in which otters delight, their watery
habitations, their oily, noiseless movements, and their dark fur, invest
them with mystery in the eyes of the peasantry in many parts of England.

The emigration of otters is established by the following fact:--"A
labourer going to his work, soon after five o'clock in th