3 <5 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



they could, they were joined by some of the natives, and 

 with their assistance the craft was hauled up out of danger. 

 Nothing now remained to be done except to pass the weary 

 months as comfortably as possible ; they accompanied the 

 islanders to the western and warmer shore. There they 

 spent a miserable six months, being often half-starved ; for 

 the addition of several mouths to feed put a severe strain 

 upon the resources of so small and poor a community, who 

 were able to lay up but little store for winter use beyond 

 that which they absolutely required for themselves. 



The forlorn party, however, managed to shoot several 

 bears, and these, with the flesh of seventy-five otters they 

 were able to procure, constituted the main supply of food 

 till the welcome arrival of the Kuroda. 



Jack, as a rule, has little to say of his sufferings ; the 

 simple phrase, " we were wrecked," or, " we lost the ship," 

 is usually the sum of his remarks. It is only when described 

 with the graphic pen of a Clarke Russell that scenes of 

 suffering and hardship attending a wreck are brought 

 prominently before the eye with full effect. Scarcely a day 

 passes but the same story, told in the briefest outline by 

 the newspaper reporter, is met with, and read over without 

 any but a passing emotion. Perhaps it is only those that 

 have experienced the horrors of shipwreck who are able to 

 realise in an adequate degree the details of misery and 

 privation which go to make up the story. 



The little Snowdrop was fated to furnish just such an 

 episode under almost identical circumstances of season, 

 locality, and disaster, with the sole difference that, less 

 fortunate than her predecessor, she was to leave her tough 

 timbers rotting on the shore the very next year. But as 

 Gray says : " Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." 

 And youth is, or ought to be, full of the buoyancy of hope, 

 and its anticipations bright and rosy tinted. Moreover, we 

 had no Cassandra on board in the shape of a grizzled 

 boatswain to shake his head ominiously and croak over the 

 recollection of having set sail on a Friday, or that the cat 



