TARKA THE OTTER _Henry Williamson has also written_ THE OLD STAG SUN BROTHERS THE LONE SWALLOWS _Published by E. P. Dutton & Company_ TARKA THE OTTER HIS JOYFUL WATER-LIFE AND DEATH IN THE COUNTRY OF THE TWO RIVERS BY HENRY WILLIAMSON WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE HON. SIR JOHN FORTESCUE K.C.V.O. [Illustration] PUBLISHED BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY FACING ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH ON FIFTH AVENUE IN NEW YORK Tarka the Otter, Copyright, 1928 By E. P. Dutton & Company :: All Rights Reserved :: Printed in U.S.A. TO WILLIAM HENRY ROGERS CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE FIRST YEAR CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN THE LAST YEAR CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN LAST CHAPTER INTRODUCTION Men speak to each other of what they have heard, seen, touched, smelled, tasted. They agree that thunder is terrifying, that the sky is blue, that gorse is prickly, that sulphuretted hydrogen is foul, that sloes are acid. But whether our five senses convey to any two of us exactly the same impression, we know not nor ever shall know. When we travel beyond sensation or perception to the working of the intelligence we know far more of each other. Yet a man's mind is a mystery to his own brother, and a woman's to her own sister; and between man and woman, in the matter of identity of understanding, there is a fixed and impassable gulf. In fact, we know nothing about our fellow men and women; and yet for centuries men have written, and still find courage to write, what is called history--the story, that is to say, of the relations of individuals and of groups of men with each other. Moreover these histories, unless shown to be false, tend to be accepted as true; though he would be a bold historian indeed who would claim to have penetrated to the inner truth of any historical transaction. For always there remains the insurmountable fact that we are and must continue profoundly ignorant concerning even those who are nearest to us.