330 . Notes on Offers. [zoE 



the stream, being careful to keep above them. The wind was blow- 

 ing up stream from them towards me, so they did not scent me and 

 appeared entirely unsuspicious. 



I was now within fifty yards of them : so as quietly as possible I 

 laid down the paddle and, picking up the rifle, let the boat drift. The 

 current carried me rapidly toward the otters and I was just about to 

 shoot when the canoe quietly grounded on a submerged rock and 

 hung poised in mid stream. I was now within thirty yards of the 

 game and had an unobstructed view of all their movements. 



There were six of them in all, four pups and two adults. They 

 were diving for fish and each one that went down came up with a 

 trout in his mouth. He would then gulp him down without going 

 ashore, and at once dive for another. Their heads sticking above 

 the water, their mouths wide open, with the white of their lips and 

 gums showing, reminded me of a lot of rubber tubes. 



There was a moss-covered root sticking out of the water near by, 

 and every now and then a couple of the pups would climb out on 

 this and chase each other and play like two kittens. 



While I watched them they caught six or eight trout from four to 

 six inches in length, bolting them down with evident relish. 



All this time, however, the current was taking the older ones, who 

 seemed to do most of the fishing, further down the stream. This 

 was a reminder that it was time for me to take a hand in the game. 

 I waited until two of the pups crawled out on the root, and drawing 

 down as fine as possible on one of them I pres.sed the trigger. 



Between those forest walls the roar of the gun sounded hke a small 

 cannon. For a few seconds there was a great splashing and com- 

 motion and then all was still. Not an otter was to be seen. I had 

 apparently missed a dead shot. Impelled by a vicious shove from 

 the setting pole, the canoe shot alongside the root, and there, strug- 

 gling in the water behind it, was a fine young otter with a bullet hole 

 through his head. 



Otters sometimes follow down the streams of this region into tide 

 water. An old trapper once showed me an otter slide on the muddy 

 banks of the Hoquiam River not two miles from Gray's Harbor, the 

 river at this point being a slough in which the tide ebbs and flows. 

 The slide was very faintly indicated and I should never have known 

 what it was if he had not pointed it out to me. Young otter are 

 readily tamed and make most interesting and pretty pets. 



