“I swam on beyond the otter pool, under some sort of spell. It struck me that the animal’s particular magic does not stem so much from its rarity as its invisibility. It is through their puckish, Dionysian habit of veiling themselves from view that otters come to embody the river spirits themselves. Henry Williamson knew this when he wrote his great mythic poem of Tarka the Otter. In the best traditions of spirits, the otter reveals itself through signs.”
- Roger Deakin, Waterlog.