HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 165 



bullet ; in fact, it was quite untouched. Rupture of some 

 of the principal blood vessels was evidently the cause of 

 death, for the whole of the inside of the skin was a mass 

 of extravasated blood, which considerably added to the 

 disagreeableness of skinning and "leaning" at no time a 

 pleasant occupation. The rough opinion of the other 

 hunters to whom we afterwards mentioned the circumstance 

 was that, in its strenuous efforts to escape, it had broken or 

 ruptured its heart a similar instance being cited by one of 

 the crew of the Caroline as having happened to him the 

 preceding year. 



It blew hard during the night, the heavy swell rolling us 

 about uneasily, the dawn bringing with it a cold, heavy rain 

 which continued without intermission all day, with a good 

 deal of fog, but not quite so dense as it usually was. 

 Towards mid-day the wind shifted to the east and blew more 

 heavily than ever, so that we had to get underweigh and run 

 for shelter to Jap Bay. We passed the Flying Mist, 

 brought up off Sandy Bay, and at eight o'clock that night 

 dropped anchor under shelter of the big bluff which bounds 

 the north-east extremity of the bay. 



August nth. The knowledge that this was to be our 

 last day's hunting, and almost the last of our stay upon the 

 coast, was still on the knees of the gods as we left the 

 schooner that morning. Both wind and sea had dropped 

 sufficiently by ten o'clock to admit of our hunting, but before 

 we had been out half an hour the wind, which had fallen 

 almost to a calm, commenced to blow great guns from the 

 north-west. As the schooner was in no danger we rowed 

 round the base of the bluff and found shelter from the wind. 

 It was easy to see now how it was that all the great granite 

 rocks that covered the shore were so beautifully rounded, for 

 the great Pacific combers, travelling with racehorse speed, 

 were sweeping over them tons of green water with a 

 swiftness and violence that would have ground anything of 

 less solid nature to powder. 



In the small bed of kelp which lay off the point we 



