io6 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



refraction, which would fully account for the loss of the 

 other otters sighted later on, had not yet set in, and 

 considering the state of both sea and air, there seems no 

 other explanation for a disagreeable incident ; fortunately 

 for our equanimity, nothing of the kind happened again. 



On our return we found the little bay full of life and 

 movement. The water was literally coloured with shoals 

 of small sand eels, from three to four inches in length, 

 swimming about in it ; more than a dozen large whales 

 were blowing and diving all round us, while albatrosses, 

 gulls, puffins, guillemots, auks, shags, tern, and dusky 

 petrels in their thousands found a rich banquet close to 

 their homes. 



After a hearty dinner of cod chowder, prepared by Baker 

 (who had caught the fish) against our return, we lighted 

 our pipes and went on deck to clean rifles and watch the 

 glorious sunset flooding the waters with its golden light. 

 No one could accuse us of being " sick with hating the 

 sun " or insensible to its cheering influence, so little did we 

 generally see of it. But before the purple darkness fell 

 upon the scene an ominous flush of green and orange rose 

 slowly upwards from the horizon and cast a lurid light 

 around, while through the gloomy silence of the night a 

 distant moaning sound floated over the waters till, as it 

 came nearer, it fairly broke into a mournful wail. A glance 

 at the barometer hanging in the cabin skylight showed us, 

 by the rapid falling of the mercury, what we were to expect. 

 The boats were turned over and securely lashed in their 

 places, the storm jib sent forward, the halliards manned, 

 the jib, a medium-sized one and new, unstopped, and 

 everything made ready for putting to sea at a moment's 

 notice should the wind come from any quarter but the north 

 or east ; if it came from the north we should be under shelter 

 of the land, if from the east we were protected by Gull 

 Island an_d_j^sislets. Fortunately it chose the latter quarter, 

 or oxfexperiences would in all/ probability have been 

 sirxilar to those "b*. ftp p r^jfng week. Comparatively 



