1 66 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



came upon a school of about fifty otters. Now was our 

 chance, had the weather only been more propitious ; but, 

 with the very few exceptions already mentioned, this was 

 never the case. It only required one short dive seawards, 

 and in a moment they were lost to sight amidst the stormy 

 waters, already lashed into foam by the violence of the 

 gale ; and even the ardour of pursuit was damped by 

 the certainty of being blown out to sea to perish miserably. 

 With one eye upon the stormy water outside and the other 

 upon the mountainous billows that broke like thunder upon 

 the shore, rifle shooting was certainly at a disadvantage. 

 But, in spite of everything, we managed to get a fine, full- 

 grown couple, whose curiosity, being greater than their 

 timidity, proved their undoing. 



In reading the early accounts of the discovery of the 

 sea otter and its haunts by Europeans, and in view of the 

 large numbers of them found together in immense schools, 

 the natural inference is that they are gregarious in their 

 habits. But our own experience, and that of other hunters 

 with whom we came in contact, many of whom had 

 followed this occupation for years upon the American 

 coast, was quite opposed to this. The presence of any 

 number of them in such quantity as to constitute a small 

 or large school, as it is called, of from twenty to one 

 hundred and upwards, was our experience only during or 

 immediately after the prevalence of bad weather, and at 

 such times they were resting or sheltering in the beds of 

 kelp which, though but sparsely scattered along the coast 

 and of comparatively small extent, were larger and more 

 frequent along the American coast line. 



Although large quantities of those molluscs and Crustacea 

 which form the principal food of the sea otter would 

 naturally find harbourage around the roots and stems of 

 these submarine forests, such pasturage would soon become 

 exhausted; while their active habits and great natatory 

 powers show conclusively how great are their wanderings 

 in search of food. 



