30 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



about 2000 feet high, broke up rapidly into hills as they 

 neared the water, down to which they sloped somewhat 

 abruptly. In many places huge landslips, the result of frost 

 and the undermining action of the waves, formed cliffs, 

 leaving the half-submerged rocks piled up in endless 

 variety and confusion beneath, many of them on end like 

 huge needles, reminding one forcibly of the Quiraing in 

 Skye. The country was well wooded with stunted birch 

 and fir, the former mostly white-looking and dead, through 

 having their bark stripped off by the Einos for covering 

 their houses, and for torches and other purposes. The fibre 

 of this bark is woven into a coarse kind of cloth, and 

 twisted into the string of which their nets are composed. 



While here we observed a number of curious marine 

 creatures, which had before attracted our attention when 

 lying in Hakodate Harbour ; there they were more plentiful, 

 but we were too busy to notice them much. They might 

 well be termed " marine millepeds," they looked somewhat 

 like animated ribbons. The largest we measured was 

 14 inches long and i inch broad, colour a reddish-brown, 

 lighter underneath, shape like an exaggerated milleped, 

 their movements when swimming, very slightly undulating, 

 were evidently performed by the short legs, many hundreds 

 in number, which lined both sides of the body like a 

 delicate fringe. Head and body were all in one ; in fact, 

 it was difficult to say whether it had a head at all, and 

 if so, at which end it was. What we took for it, on 

 account of being a little broader than the rest of the body, 

 had the appearance of a half-closed anemone. Thy were 

 all swimming on or near the surface of the water, which 

 was here 20 fathoms deep, with fine, sandy bottom. 

 We tried in vain for a long time to fish up one with a 

 boat-hook, but they invariably broke in halves, dyeing the 

 water a milky-white. At length we had recourse to a 

 bucket, which proved more successful, and we obtained 

 the individual that enabled us to give the foregoing 

 description. 



