n6 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



dragged overboard. Our gaff consisted of a three-quarter 

 inch iron hook, securely lashed to one of the boat's masts ; 

 a stout rope, reeved through the eye of hook, gave an 

 additional purchase for all hands. The body, being con- 

 sidered too rank, was cut up and salted for the crew; 

 another barrel being filled with the heads, tails, and side 

 fins for our own use ; and very good we found them,, 

 though decidedly oily. 



Towards the afternoon of the second day the fog cleared 

 sufficiently to show us our position, in the centre of 

 Hitokatpu Bay, and so close to the shore as to be very 

 dangerous in the event of a heavy sea setting in. Sail was 

 accordingly made, and we were soon tearing out of the 

 bay before half a gale of wind from the north-west. The 

 strictly local character of the winds on this coast was 

 curiously exemplified as we got outside, for a small sloop, 

 which we sighted about a couple of miles off, was running 

 for the bay with a southerly breeze behind her. Presently 

 there was a dead calm, so we at once put off in the boats,, 

 and succeeded in securing two full-grown otters and a pup. 

 We made the schooner at eight o'clock, as she was 

 dropping anchor in a small sandy bay to the north of 

 Green Bluff. 



A pause in the narrative must be made here to place on 

 record the extraordinary affection of the sea otter for her 

 young. It is very seldom that she will desert it, as she 

 almost invariably clings to it with the truest maternal 

 devotion to -the last. Impeded with the object of her 

 ceaseless care, the long, bold dives for freedom are no 

 longer possible. Hampered with a charge whose plaintive 

 cries strike deeper, deadlier than the hunter's bullet, her 

 sole, unselfish anxiety is centred in her offspring. Some- 

 times, during the extreme crisis of the chase, the little 

 fluffy ball would be left to its own resources, but none who 

 saw could doubt that this was but the choice of a lesser 

 evil. Warned by the hushed plaint and catching breath, 

 she knows that but a few more dives beneath the protecting 



