HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



'45 



and a half on one of the Aleutian Islands, informed us that 

 the natives declared the otter to breed at twelve months 

 old. This certainly did not agree with our own observa- 

 tion, for in no case did we see an otter with a pup which 

 was not full grown, though we killed several half-grown 

 ones, about the size of the river otter. 



Moreover, we sometimes came across a half-grown pup 

 in company with a cow otter that had a new-born pup 

 between her paws. It is, therefore, probable that the pup 

 remains under its mother's care until it is about half- 

 grown. 



The frequent mention in these pages of bull and cow 

 otters and pups must seem to the general reader, as well 

 as the naturalist, an incongruous nomenclature. But as 

 these are the terms universal among hunters engaged in 

 this wild and strange pursuit, it is as well, perhaps, to 

 ignore the inconsistency, remembering only that those who 

 have bestowed them are, as a rule, as rugged and untamed 

 as the coasts they frequent. 



We worked our way gradually up the coast, anchoring 

 here and there, as weather and surroundings permitted, fog 

 and light winds continuing most of the time. Sometimes 

 we left the schooner under fairly promising conditions, but 

 were glad to be picked up half an hour later, to avoid 

 being sunk by one of those local storms which, as fierce 

 as they are sudden, came woollying with terrific roar 

 down the mountain gullies. Independent of the almost 

 everlasting fogs, these sudden storms were, considering 

 the peculiarly shelterless nature of the coast, a constant 

 source of anxiety, coming, as they did, without a moment's 

 warning. 



On one side the ocean, with its intervening tide-rips, 

 risky enough to our small boats in a calm ; on the other, 

 sandy stretches, cliffs, or boulders, all equally inaccessible. 

 For rare, indeed, was the day when the mountainous rollers, 

 raised by some distant storm, the veriest fringe of whose 

 disturbance scarcely sufficed to fan our drooping sails to 



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