THE SEA-OTTER 691 



natives set out in their canoes from Sanak, " and scud on the tail <df the gale to the 

 far outlying rocks, just sticking out above surf- wash, where they creep up from the 

 leeward to the sea-otters found there at such times, with their heads stuck into 

 the beds of kelp to avoid the wind. The noise of the gale is greater than that made 

 by the stealthy movements of the hunters, who, armed each with a short, heavy 

 wooden club, dispatch the animals one after another without alarming the whole 

 body, and in this way two Aleuts were known to have slain seventy-eight in less 

 than an hour and a half." Instead of these methods, which are employed in 

 Unalaska island and the districts to the eastward, among the Atka Aleuts the sea- 

 otters are caught in small coarse-meshed nets. These nets are spread out over the 

 kelp beds upon which the otters are in the habit of sleeping. The animals getting 

 entangled in the meshes on their arrival, appear to become almost paralyzed with 

 fear and thus fall an easy prey to the hunters. 



On the other hand, in Kamchatka, according to Dr. Guillemard, the sea-otter 

 is always shot with a bow and arrows. ' ' The former is a tough piece of wood five 

 or six feet in length, which is enormously strengthened by a band of plaited hide on 

 the outer face, so tightly fixed as to give the bow a curve in the opposite direction 

 when unstrung. The arrows are of wood for three-quarters of their length, with 

 feathers fitted diagonally along the shaft, so as to produce a rotatory motion. The 

 remaining portion is of walrus ivory, provided at the end with a socket, into which 

 a barbed copper point is inserted. This is connected to the arrow by a long string 

 of plaited sinew wound around the shaft. When the otter is hit, the barb, which 

 is very loose, becomes at once detached, and if the animal gain the sea, its where- 

 abouts is indicated by the arrow floating above it. ' ' 



The skin of the sea-otter is perhaps the most valuable of all furs. 

 Pelage 



and when prepared for use has all the long hairs removed, leaving 



only the under-fur. In Kamchatka, Dr. Guillemard states that a good skin will 

 bring even as much as seventy -five dollars to the native hunter, while a perfect ex- 

 ample has been known to realize, according to Mr. Poland, as much as one thou- 

 sand dollars in the European market. The average price in 1891 was two hundred 

 and seventy-five dollars per skin. 



