42 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



appeal from him must be sent through tortuous channels 

 and entail a delay of months before an answer could be 

 obtained, leaving us in the meantime to kick our heels at 

 Nemoro. The next day would be May 2ist, ten days 

 having been consumed in sailing from Hakodati harbour 

 over a course of two hundred and eighty miles. And now, 

 from where we lay, but seventy or eighty miles only half a 

 day's sail with a good breeze separated us from our 

 hunting grounds. But it was, after all, of no use to anticipate 

 contingencies and difficulties which might never arise ; so r 

 until the Governor should declare his hand on the morrow, 

 we were fain to turn in and get a good night's rest, for the 

 schooner was as steady as a farmhouse, resolving only that 

 he should find that he had not Japanese to deal with this 

 time, and that it would go hard if we did not adopt some 

 means force if necessary to thwart him in any little 

 scheme of personal profit at our expense. As to his pro- 

 hibiting otter hunting, there were other places to which we 

 could go the Aleutians, or even Kamschatka if so minded. 



At daybreak we got up the anchor, and taking a short 

 tack, ran in and brought up in front of the settlement, in 

 three and a half fathoms, and about fifty yards from the 

 shore. Large quantities of gulls dotted the sand and 

 gravel bank which formed the low ground of the peninsula, 

 while upon rocks of no great elevation, about a couple of 

 hundred yards off, were two white-tailed eagles, preening 

 their feathers in the morning sun. It was interesting to 

 observe how the presence of these lordly birds affected the 

 gulls, for no sooner were they conscious of the nearness of 

 their dreaded foe, than, with a yell seemingly more of anger 

 than fear, the gulls rose in a mass, screaming continuously, 

 although the eagles never took any notice of them. 



After breakfast, Snow went to call upon the Governor, 

 and took with him, as a present, some central-fire cartridges 

 for a gun which he had presented to him the preceding 

 autumn. The skipper and I lowered another boat, and 

 pulled for the island, with the intention of shooting some 



