HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 93 



seemed literally to overhang us, it folded its white wings on 

 either side, showing a black breast of rock and precipice, 

 leaving the upper part shrouded in wreaths of trailing mist. 

 But quickly as it ascended, it settled down again as fast, 

 giving us scarcely time to scan the grim and towering rock 

 against which we might at any minute be dashed to pieces ; 

 but that minute was sufficient, Baker recognised the 

 mountain at once with that instinct, common, though in 

 different degrees, both to the sailor and the savage, of 

 remembering a place once seen. The skipper had the 

 bearings taken in an instant, and we set ourselves as 

 patiently as circumstances would permit to wait the advent 

 of a favouring breeze. 



As to our position, it was now clear that the current in 

 which we had so long helplessly drifted, after skirting the 

 eastern seaboard, doubled the north-eastern point of the 

 island and swinging round to the left, ran a north-westerly 

 course through the Yetorup Strait, and, still hugging the 

 coast, was carrying us into the Sea of Okhotsk when we 

 finally brought up. Not having time to visit the west coast, 

 it is impossible to say whether this current completely 

 encircles the island ; but judging from our drift this theory 

 was not improbable, as we should inevitably have been 

 carried on to the north-west cape had we not been able by 

 the shoaling of the water to anchor in time to save 

 ourselves. The hypothesis that we were under the influence 

 of a powerful eddy setting in shore was contradicted by the 

 tumultous tide-race in which we found ourselves to the 

 very last. It seems evident, therefore, that the current 

 from the Sea of Okhotsk, which passes eastward through 

 the Kunashir Channel, bends to the north, and after 

 washing the seaboard re-enters its parent sea through 

 the Yetorup Strait. Counting from the time when we 

 entered it till we anchored on the edge of the surf, we 

 were drifting for about eighty hours, and reckoning a mile- 

 and-a-half for each hour we had moved a hundred and 

 twenty miles. We failed to catch a glimpse of Urup lying 



