HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



157 



position and with our experience, would not look as 

 longingly landwards as he is said to do. i 



It seemed as if the screaming blasts tearing down the 

 hillsides met some denser and almost rigid stratum of air 

 which deflected its fury and hurled it downwards along the 

 face of the cliff, until it struck the waves beating against 

 the shore and whirled their broken crests into a cloud of 

 foam and spindrift. 



Up to this time the Flying Mist had obtained eighty- 

 seven skins, and the Otsego forty, against our one hundred 

 and thirty-three. 



The day was too good to be lost, so after a hasty lunch 

 we parted from our companions and recommenced our 

 hunt. 



We got back to the schooner at about nine that night 

 with ten full-grown otters in the boats with smarting, 

 sunburnt faces and arms, but in good spirits. 



A tired crew ten otters to skin, three rifles each to 

 clean, as well as ourselves, and dinner to take, kept us 

 busy until past midnight. Thus ended one of our three 

 red-letter days upon this coast, which had been really clear 

 and bright from sunrise to sunset. Such a day is instruc- 

 tive as showing what sport might have been obtained had 

 the weather only been favourable more frequently. On 

 the other hand, what is good for the hunter is seldom 

 so to the hunted. Man is a strenuous creature, meeting 

 dangers and difficulties only to overcome them, while they 

 add to the joy and fascination of the sport. But on those 

 occasions when, unable to reach the vessel, we had to 

 spend cold and uncomfortable nights coiled up on the 

 bottom boards of the boats, wet and hungry, sometimes 

 even without the solace of tobacco for it is just at such 

 times that the supply gives out one could not help think- 

 ing that a few such nights went a long way, and the more 

 seldom they came the better. "Rocked in the cradle of the 

 Deep," especially if heard from the recesses of a comfortable 

 armchair, is a soothing melody, implying virtually a good 



