X.] SEA -OTTER HUNTING. 225 



or three boats invarial^ly proceed in company when engaged in 

 hunting the sea-otter, and that during heavy weather they 

 lash them together with the paddles, by which means even 

 a moderate gale can be safely encountered. 



The natives piloted us into a small bay which, protected 

 as it was by an island ^ and a long reef running out from the 

 mainland, afforded fairly good shelter in all winds. At the 

 head of it stood the village, almost in\dsible at a httle 

 distance, composed entirely of underground yourts, whose 

 smoke-begrimed interiors were not in\dting to a European. 

 We had hoped to find many skins of the sea-otter here, but 

 were disappointed, the whole village only producing two ; we 

 became possessors, however, of what, though less valuable, 

 was of more interest, — the bow and arrows with which these 

 animals are killed. The former is a tough piece of wood five 

 or six feet in length, which is enormously strengthened by a 

 band of plaited hide on the outer face, so tightly fixed as to 

 give the bow when unstrung a curve in the opposite direction. 

 The arrows are of wood for three-quarters of their length, 

 fitted with feathers attached diagonally along the shaft, so 

 as to produce a rotatory motion. The remaining portion 

 is of walrus ivory, provided at the end with a socket, into 

 which a barbed copper point is inserted. This is connected 

 to the arrow by a long string of plaited sinew wound 

 around the shaft. Wlien the otter is hit, the barb, which is 

 very loose, becomes at once detached, and if the animal gain 

 the sea, its whereabouts is revealed by the arrow floating 

 above it. 



The canoes used by these people are of extremely 

 graceful shape, and so light that they can be lifted in one ^^^- 



OTTER 



hand with ease. They are constructed of a wooden skeleton arrow. 



^ This island, which is not marked in the chart, was named by us after Lieut. 

 R. ff. Powell. It is in Lat. 51° 33' N., Long. 157° 50' E., and is about two miles 

 in length. The coast at this part is placed too far to the eastward. 



VOL. I. Q 



