HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 143 



will be remarkably chary of repeating the experiment. 

 One I had winged only a short time before drew blood 

 from the whole boat's crew before we got him aboard the 

 schooner, and then managed not only to beat off Rover, 

 nay, actually assumed the offensive, and hung on beak and 

 claws to anyone who came within reach. After all, the 

 few eggs we did get were hard-set. While searching the 

 lower rocks and ledges we came upon a solitary puffin 

 sitting on her equally solitary egg, in a crevice. After 

 about half an hour's hard work, during which she defied 

 all our stratagems to dislodge her, we succeeded, by dint 

 of sticks, ramrods, string, and handkerchiefs, in securing 

 both her and the object of her solicitude. Amongst the 

 numerous things we raked out of her nest, if such it might 

 be called, was an empty copper cartridge shell of a Henry 

 rifle, and marked " T. and K." I gave it some time after- 

 wards to the chief hunter of the Buffandeau, as belonging 

 to his rifle, and as a curiosity on account of the place 

 where it was found. This man had never landed on this 

 islet, but had repeatedly shot all round it. The puffin must 

 therefore have dived in two fathoms of water to obtain it. 

 Whether carried to her nest as a drinking-cup or a 

 curiosity, " deponent sayeth not." Possibly she wished to 

 test the truth of the adage " Keep a thing for seven 

 years and you will find a use for it." The skipper inclined 

 to the latter view, having heard of an American who, by 

 wearing the same hat for twenty-one years, had been 

 seven times in the fashion. 



This visit to Otter Island was made on July i2th, when 

 the greater part of the eggs were hard-set, but we saw 

 no young ones. On the 2oth of the same month I found 

 a young one in its hole, beneath a boulder, on one of 

 the Pinnacle Rocks, off the south end of Sandy Bay. It 

 was covered with black hair, with a beak more like that of 

 a duck than a puffin, only higher at the culmen. We had 

 on the former occasion brought away four specimens, 

 the examination of which was to enable us to write a 



