HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. u 



air was cold but clear and invigorating, the surrounding 

 hills being still covered with a mantle of snow. For the next 

 fortnight we were all busily occupied, helping Baker with the 

 sails and rigging of the Snowdrop which was already afloat, 

 having been launched a week prior to our arrival. On May 

 yth we were ready to sail, but, pending the long-promised 

 delivery of our "papers" from the Japanese authorities, we 

 took a short trial cruise round the bay to test our vessel and 

 crew. Everything proved as satisfactory as could be 

 expected, only more so, as the skipper observed. Before 

 commencing our voyage, it will be as well, perhaps, to give 

 some description of the ship and her crew. 



Built entirely by Japanese carpenters under the constant 

 supervision of Thompson the native dikesan being quite as 

 clever at " scamping " his work as his more civilised 

 brother the Snowdrop was a fore and aft schooner with 

 pole masts and of about the following dimensions : 



Tonnage 62 tons B.M. 



Length over all 70 feet. 



Length of water line 60 ,, 



Beam 18 ,, 



Draught, loaded 5 ,, 



The knees were all of solid, native-grown oak, requiring 

 but a slight trimming with the axe before being put in their 

 places. This abnormal angularity is owing to the fierceness 

 of the blasts that, at all times of the year, but especially in 

 winter, sweep over them with resistless force. Sheltered 

 and upheld by the deep snow, they struggle upward gnarled 

 and lichen covered ; but here their course is checked, and 

 frequent bending to the storm results, as they grow, in 

 strange and weird shapes and angles. 



Although the Governor of Nemoro had repeatedly 

 promised that the iron knees, to obtain which Snow had 

 burned his vessel, should be dispatched as early as possible 

 to Hakodate, they never appeared, and, when a few weeks 

 later we reached that place, they were to be seen exactly as 

 they had been left eight months before. With laudable 



