HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 79 



coast, keeping together and rowing steadily until ten 

 o'clock, when we stopped for the last time to fire off our 

 rifles in hopes of the schooner being within hearing 

 distance. But as there was no response and the men were 

 exhausted, we gave up all hopes of bed and board that night 

 and made for the shore, keeping close in, a curious 

 columnar rock which had been observed by us during the 

 earlier part of the day giving us our position. By this time 

 it was almost pitch dark, for the only light visible was the 

 phosphorescent wave crests as they broke upon the sandy 

 beach. Fortunately, the immense rollers which usually spend 

 their strength upon the coast had melted away with the 

 calm weather, or landing would have been impossible. As 

 it was, already wet through with the fine "Scotch mist" 

 that had been falling all night, there was little objection to 

 jumping out and dragging the boats through the surf. A 

 little groping along the beach, and we had soon collected 

 drift wood enough to make a roaring fire, which added 

 much, in appearance at least, to our comfort. After dis- 

 embowelling the otters we were too tired to skin, I took a 

 rifle in case we might fall in with a bear a contingency 

 not at all unlikely, considering the strong scent from the dead 

 otters and set off with several of the men, two of whom 

 carried torches of dried grass, to obtain wood enough to 

 keep up the fire for the remainder of the night. After 

 topping the bank, the little party found themselves in a 

 small sandy hollow overgrown with bunches of coarse grass. 

 At the bottom the leader stumbled and fell over a log of 

 wood, and this proved to be the topsail yard of a large 

 ship. Tucked underneath, and covered on the outside with 

 earth and moss, was the sail belonging to it, the whole 

 forming part of the side of a hut. These remains supplied 

 the materials for making up a tale of shipwreck and 

 suffering; and judging by the size of the sail, still in good 

 preservation, the vessel must have been a large one, for the 

 canvas was big enough to supply the whole crew with pants. 

 It was not difficult to divine by the dimensions of the refuge 



