HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 135 



We were about a mile from the land ; the last otter had 

 just been taken on board, and a hurried mouthful of food 

 was being taken for, up to this time, we had been too 

 busy to lunch when a low, moaning sound swept over 

 the waters. 



Prepared as we were for anything on such a treacherous 

 coast, the boats were quickly cast adrift, and in another 

 minute we were pulling for dear life, with the double object 

 of seeking shelter under the cliffs and of giving as wide a 

 berth as possible to the ever-present dangers of the tide-rip. 

 Already the moan of the wind had swelled into a roar, as 

 it swept down the mountain side, churning the sea into 

 foam and veiling the dark coastline in a cloud of spray. 

 Already we had entered into the vaporous mist raised by 

 the excessive violence of the wind, and encountered the 

 full fury of the blast. The air at once became icy cold, 

 and our faces, burnt up by the powerful sun but just now, 

 were smarting and tingling under a hail of spindrift. 

 Progress was almost out of the question. All our energies 

 were directed to keeping the boat's head on to the wind ; 

 but the roar of the tide-rip, rising at intervals between the 

 howling gusts, was a keen stimulus to exertion, and, after 

 a terrible and exhausting pull, the shore loomed up a short 

 distance before us. Then, for the first time, we became 

 acquainted with a peculiarity of these storms, which, though 

 frequently the subject of conversation among otter hunters, 

 we had not yet experienced. 



A few more strokes, and we should be under the lee of 

 the high land ; but great was our dismay to find that, when 

 but a few yards from the huge wall of rock that towered 

 hundreds of feet above us, the violence of the gusts was as 

 great as when half a mile off. In fact, the wind must have 

 come perpendicularly down the face of the rock. It was 

 particularly noticeable on the little sandy stretches, where 

 the waves broke not a couple of yards out, that the water 

 was caught up and thrown over us in showers. And when 

 at length we turned homewards, still keeping close to the 



