to gain. He was within half a dozen feet of the desired haven, when his enemy, perhaps seeing an advantage would be lost, made a dash at him. Harlequin-like he popped beneath the sedges, and as the dog buried herself among them, out came a moor-hen on the wings of fear, and, with distended legs, flapped from the scene of tugging war. In a short time the rat was visible once more to his unrelenting enemy, and to make him her prize appeared to be the object of her enthusiastic desire. On they went, and the splash and froth of the water told how ardent were the struggles. A few good long strokes brought Donna within snapping distance, and her mouth seemed to be partly opened for the desired operation, when again the rascal dipped and escaped the jaws of death. Round the dog cast a wide circle, and as the rat's head emerged from the depths below to refresh his lungs, Donna threw herself with a sudden plunge towards him, and flung him like a shuttlecock in the air, with scarcely sufficient time to feel a pang of parting from this sublunary world. "Dead, Donna, dead!" cried I, as she continued to mangle the body of the inanimate victim, and throwing him upon the green sward with an unequivocal expression of gratified ambition, she shook the drops from her saturated skin, and barked loudly with pourtrayed egotistical thoughts of her own prowess.

When we had recovered our wonted composure from the attendant excitement of the watery fray, ideas of the first cause of our early excursion began to again occupy the seat from which they sprung. Three remaining parts of the spotted trout, eaten to the vents, and still fresh as the dew-drops glistening upon the scales, riveted the supposition of the close neighbourhood of an otter. Now the seals were as plentiful as daisies in a meadow with a May sun warming the expanding leaves, and Donna's exertions became doubled to discover the retreat of the forager. For some distance I tracked the otter in the mud, and opposite to the roots of an old tree, which had been blown across the river by some wild gust of the wintry-wind, I lost all trace of him. Along the bank my favorite went, and turning suddenly round as she passed the fallen tree, every hackle rose upon her back, and, winding high in the air, she would have dashed into the stream had I not caught her by the collar and checked her in the spring. "Softly, softly!" said I; "you've found him, my lass; but we must have some assistance to kill him." And thus with an old pointer did I discover the holt that held an otter.

I had collected a team of the best dogs that could be drafted in the vicinity some three days previous to the attempt being made, and, although each being anything but a cur, I think few men have unkennelled such a tag-rag, bobtail crew, to hunt even rats in a barn, as I had to open a cheer to in my otter drag. A couple and a half of my hounds (?) consisted of three white Scotch terriers, ready to have a go" at a mouse or a rhinoceros; one was a shepherd's dog, as the shoemaker of the village ventured to swear, but whose appearance to me looked unpleasantly like a poaching lurcher with cropped ears and tail; and a fourth was a brindled bull-dog, with one of the thickest heads and thinnest tails I have yet seen in any of those illustrations of our national character. Two black and white mongrels, having the mingled blood of a hound, poodle, and pug-dog, and an old dark brown curly-coated water-spaniel, with the pointer, completed my heterogeneal

pack. So afraid was I of an immediate desertion of my forces, that I had each member coupled and led to the seat of action, confiding in the heat of warfare for more glorious proceedings. Upwards of thirty stout bumpkins, armed with heavy cudgels, and a few of my friends accompanied me, after lining the inward man with consoling solids and fluids, and not a little surprise was occasioned by my declaring to them that within fifteen minutes I would find an otter. Upon arriving at the spot where Donna gave such decided indications of his whereabouts, I placed a select few of my companions in advanced positions as trusty sentinels, ordered the majority in the rear to keep well back, and to maintain silence, and directed the old pointer to try once more the likely holt. Again she winded high in the air, dashed through the sedges into the river, and, driving her head into the holt, commenced tearing away at it with her fore feet as if she had been well practised in the mysteries of sapping and mining.

"Now for the spade and pick-axe," said I; when two of my eager votaries well skilled in the use of such weapons commenced an attack that promised in a very limited space to lay bare the inward recesses of the rooty home. "Be quiet, keep your mouths shut and your eyes open," continued I, "and we shall get some sport in a crack." Globes of perspiration began to trickle from the brows and cheeks of the diggers, the dogs were squatting on their haunches watching with pricked ears the progress of the work, and at every click the axe now made the excitement of all seemed to rise one degree, when I heard the sudden exclamation from a boy, standing a few yards from me, of "Crikey, what a rat!" Casting my eyes towards him, I saw, or thought I saw, an otter down. Before I could be quite assured of the correctness of my vision, one of the terriers, called Tartar, made a spring like an antelope into the river, and likewise almost carried the man who was holding him into it. 'Slip the dogs," halloo'd I, as I now saw the otter shew himself about forty yards up the river, having broke from some secret channel, and with a "Loo, have at him!" the whole swept up the bank, and followed me headlong into the water. Never shall I forget the scene that now ensued. In every direction men and boys leaped into the river, yelling like a parcel of Indian savages, and lost to all kind of control. Some found themselves in dangerous depths and were shrieking for assistance, while others roared with laughter at seeing them so capitally ducked. Above, below, around, was nothing but boisterous fun and the essence of confusion.

Losing sight of the otter for a longer period than pleased me, I left the stream, and running up the side of the river I saw the "varmint" streaking along an artificial bank on the extreme verge of the water, and some distance from us. With a cheer I got the dogs with me, and going it at my best pace-which I am proud to say is anything but slowI put them in view of the enemy, and in a few seconds they forced him to try again the depths where the green rush springs. There were now so many short bends in the river, that although the otter might rise within a few feet of the dogs, they could not be aware of his peeping, unless well directed. I therefore threw some of my forces forward, others in the rear, and remained with the pack myself, giving strict injunctions for a loud halloo when the otter was viewed. These commands, however, were needless, as whenever an eye fell upon the object

of the watery chase, strong lungs proclaimed the event, and well-strung sinews were exerted to render no second sight necessary. As we were watching for a reappearance after a long dive, and the dogs were swimming here and there with yapping tongues, the otter rose on a shallow ford, and although I could have had a fair chance for aiming a successful blow at him, I held back, and out he broke from the water, and rattled away over a wide pasture in noble style. Some distance was gained before the dogs could scramble up the banks; but when the lurcher had effected an exit it soon began to visibly decrease. Far ahead of the others, he led the run, while, in accordance with their uneven and respective capacities for speed, the remainder followed in the most approved disorder. We made the best of our time after the pack, and as we scampered away, the wet flew from us like mops between the active palms of Betty-maids on Saturday mornings. With the exception of the brindled bull and one of the nondescripts, not a dog was in sight after the fence at the end of the meadow had been charged; but after hopping over two extensive fallows, with bellows to mend at every stride, and getting through a low grass field, which was in close affinity to a bog, I discovered the whole of the dogs "brought to" at a gateway. Surmising the cause long before my arrival, I prepared my knife, and looked for a long pricking bramble. Seeing one suitable for my purpose, I hastily severed it from the hedge, and hastened towards the checked group. One terrier had taken up his position at the end of the hollowed trunk of a tree forming a drain under the gateway; while another wiry-faced fellow had rammed his head and neck and a third of his body into the opposite terminus. Drawing the dogs away, I inserted my bramble, and felt the otter about the centre of the drain; but notwithstanding some vigorous stirring up, and keeping all my companions a respectful distance from the startingpost, no hint "to go" would be taken by the sneak. However, there are a great many more ways and means of ejecting a tenant than by pitching him out of the window; I therefore began to think of applying the milder and generally the more successful means of stratagem instead of rude force. A farm-house was close by, to which I sent for a bundle of straw and some lucifer matches, or a tinder-box. The lastmentioned article with some straw were quickly brought to me, and, after putting a large quantity into the drain, I applied a match to the smouldering tinder and set the fuel in a blaze. In a very short time the retreat became too hot to hold the fugitive, and, enveloped in a dense smoke, he burst from the hollow trunk, and sped away again towards the river at astonishing speed. In a string, and about the same order as before, my pack swept after him, and with shouts that made the welkin ring my companions followed, with light heels and lighter hearts. I expected the otter would be run in to before he could head back to the river; but by extraordinary exertions he managed to regain the water, and when we arrived on its brink every dog was breasting the stream with redoubled exertions to pull his victim down. But a very short distance from the lurcher's jaws I saw the otter rise for a moment, and, finding himself so close to danger, down he went like an arrow, with scarcely sufficient time to get one sob of air. Now he once more broke from the river, and ran along the shore under the steep bank, with the lurcher close to him; but the weight of the dog on

the mud told severely against his chance of capture, and, fearing some strong drain might be found not far off, I drew three of the dogs from the water, by having them thrown upon the bank, and cheering them loudly forward, they got a view of the otter, and, making a dash at him with a reckless jump from above, turned him again into the water.

"There's a wide brick-drain of a hundred yards long, Sir, close by," said a man, with just sufficient wind left to enable him to make the communication.

"Shew me where," I replied; and off we went at the best pace left in us to discover the obnoxious spot, leaving the dogs to manage themselves for a few brief moments.

Finding the information to be correct, I doffed my shooting jacket, and with "a slop" from my companion's shoulders, we pushed both into the mouth of the drain, and effectually stopped all ingress there. Returning quickly to the seat of action, I frequently saw the otter just before the dogs, and from his faint struggles knew that he was almost beaten. Nothing could be more amusing than to see the ardor displayed by everybody when a glimpse of the otter was had. Although heated to excess, not a soul present hesitated for a moment to throw himself towards the "varmint," and brave the danger of uncertain depths as willingly as any of the finny inhabitants. It was a matter of surprise to me how he escaped the countless cudgels whirled at him, and the blows aimed with no unpractised skill, falling close and thick as hail-stones. But remarkable quickness of sight, and movements more agile than the swallow's wing, enabled him to avoid the impending hazards for a time, and empowered him to live in the midst of death. Notwithstanding my orders to abstain from throwing anything at the otter as he rose, the squeal of an unhappy dog every now and then told that they were unheeded. Indeed with such an excited and lawless set of sportsmen, it was barely possible to make anyone listen to a word of caution or advice. Each took his own course, and was enjoying the fun after his peculiar notions of the way in which the otter should be hunted. Occasionally this liberty of action ruffled the feathers of my temper, especially when I saw a dog struck with no gentle tap, but with all the want of rule and nice observances, I have not been more thoroughly delighted with any sport of the flood I ever entered into. Next to a fox-hunt, give me an otter-hunt-it will afford more sport than fishing for a twelvemonth-and henceforth, far from discouraging the presence of the river thieves, I intend offering them an hospitable protection.

In a deep narrow hole of about twelve feet of water the otter went down, and at the very shallow ends of it stood a crowd with upraised cudgels, while many lined both sides of the stream. The dogs were swimming with watchful eyes in the centre of the hole, and I now saw the life of the victim must become forfeited within a very limited period. Finding he could not get over the shallows, he turned towards the bank opposite to where I was standing, and attempted to climb it; but from weakness and exhaustion fell backwards into the water, and very narrowly escaped the jaws of a terrier. Indeed I much question whether he did not have a slight grip in the loins as he took a long last farewell dive; for as he again appeared, the terrier caught him by the extreme rear, and met with as friendly a grasp in the throat from

the otter as his most bitter enemy could desire. The other dogs, however, went helter-skelter to assist their companion, and quickly released him from the leech-like bite by despatching the "varmint" in a bunch of seconds. 'Who-whoop!" resounded far away, and from the tugging, snarling motley pack, I snatched a fine old dog otter, who gave more than an hour's famous sport and amusement.

I was riding over a wild desolate-looking spot not far from the scene of the sport just detailed, called Tannington Green, when an illfavored specimen of humanity walked briskly up to the side of my hack, and, with an off-hand introduction, commenced a political discussion upon the present absorbing financial arrangements. He was a singular-looking man, having a bridgeless nose, with two very small twinkling grey eyes, and a slit for a mouth which resembled a badly worked button-hole. Upon his head was pulled the remains of an old silk hat, so crushed and devoid of shape that I have but little doubt he used it frequently for a cushion. The costume which adorned his person consisted of a napless blue coat with some large gilt buttons sprinkled in unequal quantities upon its surface, a long black waistcoat shining and stiff with grease, and a pair of extremely light drab corduroy breeches. His thin spare legs were without gaiters, and a plentiful supply of holes in his stockings revealed an absence of a very desirable quality in his composition, neatness of personal appearance.

"Thank God!" said he, after a long speech, backed by violent gestures, "I shan't have to pay no tax. No, no, it won't reach me, that's one blessing! Howsumdever, a good many will, and that's some comfort. Gentlefolks 'll have to pinch their bellies as well as their backs now, and they'll find out at last what it is to feel poor. "Ha, ha! Mr. Peel's nipped the right toe, though it is on his friend's foot, and d―n me but I'm glad of it, though I am a rank Rad. Ha, ha, ha!— a queer sort of boy Sir Bobby is to make a rod for his own licking." "And pray," said I, "who are you, and what may be your occupation ?"

"They calls me the Tannington Lawyer," replied the ugly biped, "because I gets my living by plucking live geese for their feathers."

TERRIERS AND BADGER.

Engraved by H. LEMON from a Painting by G. ARMFIELD.

THE subject of our Plate is drawn from the following extract of a letter communicated by a friend...... The same day we chopped upon a badger as he was skulking to his hole. Trim caught him somewhat unawares, and gave him a hearty shake before he could gather himself up for a scrimmage; and indeed it bore every promise of becoming serious, as Sandy, who had heard the row, now came bounding over the hedge. This accession of strength on the enemies' side did not daunt greybeard: he saw it was necessary to be "up and doing," and went at it tooth and nail. A short yap from Trim gave instant evidence that the "fives" had been at work, the compliment being returned upon the