42 THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
The full-grown sea otter is not known to 
voice any call orcry except to emit a short sharp 
hiss when captured on land which resembles 
the badgers hiss. But the young are very 
noisy, constantly giving forth their loud, harsh 
cry which greatly resembles the cry of thé 
young lamb. 
MODES OF CAPTURE 
Sea Otter are captufed in five different mann- 
er which for the purpose of describing we will 
term Netting, Clubbing, Pedestal Hunting, 
Schooner Hunting and Bidarka Hunting. Of 
these five methods of taking the sea otter 
Pedestal and Schooner hunting are the methods 
most in use on the Oregon and Washington 
coasts 
NETTING 
As already stated the sea otter resorts to 
land for rest and sleep during the protracted 
winter storms and his manner of landing like 
everything else he does is peculiar and has been 
studied out by the ever ready hunter. 
Approaching to within about one hundred 
yards of the shore the otter stops and surveys 
the locality, or, as the sailors say, ‘‘takes his 
bearings,” and having decided that it is just 
the place for a snooze he makes one long dive. 
and gains the beach or rock as the case may 
be. This dive is often his last for the hunters 
having located a place where otters are in the 
habit of ‘‘hauling out” set heavy nets made in 
the same principle as gill nets for salmon and 
when the otter dives he becomes entangled in 
the net and is drowned. This method is now 
very justly prohibited by law and to the writers 
knowledge was never practiced in Oregon, but 
it was carried on very extensively in Alaska 
until prohibited in 1893. 
CLUBBING 
This method is only practiced in localities 
where the otters are more numerous such as 
the Senack Islands in Alaska. 
It is as primitive as it is effective and during 
the winter months more sea otters are killed in 
this manner than any other. The hunters re- 
sort to the small islands lying off the coast, 
two or more men forming a party. Each 
hunter takes a certain stretch of coast which 
constitutes his ‘‘beat”’ which is worked over at 
least once each day. Great caution is used,, 
the hunter traveling along about fifty yards 
back from the beach, using care to keep out of 
sight he approaches from some point from which 
he can obtain a good view of the beach and_ex- 
amines it with his field glass, which, with his 
club forms his sole equipment. If nothing is 
seen he makes another semicircle inland but 
should an otter be sighted he retreats and 
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