anything finer than corduroy trousers, a short blue jacket of the cotton
material from which blouses are made, a straw-hat, and _espadrilles_,
into which he put his bare feet. No heavier clothing is consistent with
happiness in such a climate as that of the Dordogne Valley during the
summer months. When, by gliding over the transparent water, which revealed
the pebbles at the bottom almost in the deepest places, and the shoals of
fish as they passed up and down the stream, the temptation to plunge became
irresistible, the blue jacket and the other garments were thrown off in a
few seconds, and the fish were startled by the descent of a black head and
beard, followed by the rest of that human form which Carlyle has compared
to a forked radish.

Sometimes the Otter made nocturnal expeditions far up the channels of the
little streams that fall into the Dordogne. Then he was after crayfish.
The ordinary method of catching these crustaceae, namely, with a piece of
netting covering a small wire hoop, and baited with meat, had little charm
for him. There was another much more in keeping with his passion for
movement. He would walk up the beds of the streams quite heedless of the
water, holding in one hand a lantern, and having the other free to make a
grab at every crayfish he might see scuttling out of harm's way over the
stones or sand. As he went slowly up the narrow valleys, the gleam of
his lantern through the osiers, the tall loose-strife and hemp-agrimony
startled the owls, the hedgehogs and the weasles; but not the sound of
water wailing in the darkness, nor the cries of disturbed animals, nor
the weird blackness of overhanging trees that hid the stars, troubled his
nerves. On he went, through water-meadows, at the bottom of gloomy little
gorges, and by the fringe of the forest, until he had wandered miles away
from Beynac. We very nearly met one night, both being out with the same
object in view. I, however, had very little of his zeal for the sport, and
was less interested by the crayfish than by the fantastic indistinctness