328 . Notes on Otters. [ ZOE 
direction of the wind, the drift of the current, etc. Then he patrols 
the beach in the direction in which the otter is liable to come ashore, 
and patiently waits for it to come jn. This sometimes takes two 
days, but they all of them come ashore sooner or later. He also tells 
his comrades, who likewise watch the beach, and they always re- 
spect each other’s property. When hunters were more numerous 
than they are at present they used to brand their bullets as an addi- 
tional means of identification. 
In the summer season when the weather is settled the Indians of 
the Quinault Reservation venture out into the ocean in their canoes 
and attack the otter out at sea. The white hunters object strongly 
to this method of hunting, as they claim it makes the otters even 
wilder than they are at present. Undoubtedly many otters are hit 
that get away badly wounded. This is particularly the case when 
pursued by the Indians in their canoes. They are notas good shots 
as the white hunters, and. then they often find bands of otter and 
shoot indiscriminately into the bunch. 
Probably the most successful white hunter on the beach is a man 
named Wetherell, who has hunted there a long time and has killed 
a great many otters. About half way between Gray’s Harbor and 
the Quinault River is the Copalis Rock, which stands in the ocean 
some 600 yards from the beach. This rock has very precipitous 
sides and its summit is perhaps forty feet above the water on a calm 
day, but when there is a storm the great rollers come in and dash 
themselves against this bold sentinel until the spray runs in snowy 
cascades down his grim sides and the shock of the impact makes 
him tremble to the very foundation. On this wild spot Wetherell 
determined to build a house and shoot sea otter—and he did it. 
The rock can only be approached in calm weather, so with the 
aid of some Indians and their canoes he carried lumber out there and 
built a small hut on the highest point of the rock and securely bolted 
it down. He carried out food and water and here he used to stay, 
sometimes kept prisoner for three or four weeks at a time, but en- 
joying magnificent opportunities to shoot otters as they swam by. 
He established a code of signals and also had a blackboard on which 
he used to write the direction a dead otter was drifting. This was 
read by means of a glass by his confederates on shore, who picked - 
them up as they drifted in. This was a very successful stand for a 
