Hunting at High Altitudes 



the result was sixteen skins and skeletons of the 

 rarest of North American mammals. The speci- 

 mens were not large, and we had little opportunity 

 of observing the habits of the animal. 



Our long voyage was not lacking in hard work 

 and hazard. There were the regular watches on 

 deck, which I shared day and night with the small 

 crew; thirsty hunts for wild goats on the moun- 

 tainous desert islands to replenish our larder; and 

 trips to distant watering places, where the casks 

 had to be filled and laboriously gotten on board. 

 In our search we must have landed a score of times 

 on rocky islets, inhabited by hundreds of sea lions, 

 and about which the sea ran high. Day after day 

 we tugged at the oars, minutely examining leagues 

 of beaches, while the schooner cruised offshore. 

 We landed through all degrees of surf, where the 

 boat was sometimes swamped. One man fell over- 

 board at sea with his rubber hip-boots on, and the 

 boat reached him not a second too soon. We lost 

 an anchor among the rocks, and smashed the cast- 

 iron windlass in the vain effort to save it in a surg- 

 ing sea. 



Meanwhile the sealers had resumed their de- 

 structive work, and it was a race between us as to 

 whether science or the oil makers would get the 

 last specimen. 



408 



