HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 5 



It was only after a somewhat extended residence in 

 Japan, and when the writer had been long acquainted with 

 the fact that the habitat of the sea otter covered a stretch 

 from the Kamschatka Peninsula as far south as the Kurile 

 or Northern Japanese Islands, and had from frequent 

 description become familiar with the methods of hunting 

 employed by the natives on both continents, that the 

 subject became personally interesting, leading up as it did 

 to the expedition, an account of which will form the matter 

 of this book. A more intimate knowledge of the American 

 method of hunting, adapted from that of the natives with 

 all the superior advantages of civilisation, the boat and 

 rifle taking the place of the skin " bidarkie," the spear, or 

 the bow, suggested a cruise in these waters. There was 

 the alluring prospect of sport and adventure, leaving little 

 room for the colder but more practical calculation of 

 profits ; and the delights of anticipation generally exceed 

 the enjoyment of the object when obtained. 



About two years previous to the venture contemplated, 

 a small American whaler, which had been fishing in the 

 Okhotsk, had the misfortune to be wrecked on one of the 

 northern points of the island of Yezo. The captain and 

 those of the crew who were saved were kindly treated by 

 the Japanese, and when sufficiently recovered to bear the 

 journey were dispatched overland to Hakodate, where they 

 took steamer to Yokohama and eventually reached home. 

 This captain, who occasionally varied the occupation of 

 whaling with that of sealing, or sea otter hunting, finding 

 how scarce whales had become in what at one time had been 

 the El Dorado of the whaler, had been quite willing to 

 explore the neighbouring islands and to examine their 

 coasts in the hopes of falling in with a shoal of larger or 

 smaller prey. How far success attended his enterprise is 

 unknown, as little was saved from the wreck, but the 

 information he gave on his landing in Japan was that it had 

 been worth while for him to keep on the ground until the 

 season had become too far advanced for safety, the coast 



