56 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



" The sea otter mother sleeps in the water on her back 

 with her young clasped between her fore paws. The pup 

 cannot live without its mother, though frequent attempts 

 have been made by the native to raise them, as they 

 often capture them alive, but, like some other species of 

 wild animals, it seems to be so deeply imbued with the 

 fear of man that it invariably dies from self-imposed 

 starvation. 



" They are not polygamous, and more than an individual 

 is seldom seen at a time when out at sea. The flesh is 

 very unpalatable, highly charged with a rank smell and 

 flavour. 



" They are playful it would seem, for I am assured, by 

 old hunters, that they have watched the sea otter for 

 half-an-hour as it lay upon its back in the water, and 

 tossed a piece of sea-weed up in the air from paw to 

 paw, apparently taking great delight in catching it before 

 it could fall into the water. It will also play with its 

 young for hours. 



" The quick hearing and acute smell possessed by the 

 sea otter are not equalled by any other creatures in the 

 Territory. They will take alarm and leave from the 

 effects of a small fire, four or five miles to the wind- 

 ward of them ; and the footstep of man must be washed 

 by many tides before its trace ceases to alarm the animal 

 and drive it from landing there, should it approach for 

 that purpose. 



" There are four principal methods of capturing the 

 sea otter, namely, by surf-shooting, by spearing surrounds, 

 by clubbing, and by nets. 



" The surf-shooting is the common method, but has only 

 been in vogue among the natives for a short time. The 

 young men have nearly all been supplied with rifles, 

 with which they patrol the shores of the island and 

 inlets, and whenever a sea otter's head is seen in the 

 surf, a thousand yards out even, they fire the great 

 distance and the noise of the surf preventing the sea 



