SEA-OTTER. 101 



natives set out in their canoes from Saanach, " and scud on the tail of the gale to 

 the far outlying rocks, just sticking out above surf -wash, where they creep up from 

 the leeward to the sea-otters found there at such times, with their heads stuck into 

 the beds of kelp to avoid the wind. The noise of the gale is greater than that 

 made by the stealthy movements of the hunters, who, armed each with a short, 

 heavy wooden club, despatch the animals one after another without alarming the 

 whole body, and in this way two Aleuts were known to have slain seventy-eight in 

 less than an hour and a half." Instead of these methods, which are employed in 

 Unalaska Island and the districts to the eastwards, among the Atka Aleuts the 

 sea-otters are caught in small coarse-meshed nets. These nets are spread out over 

 the kelp-beds upon which the otters are in the habit of sleeping. The animals, 

 getting entangled in the meshes on their arrival, appear to become almost paralysed 

 with fear, and thus fall an easy prey to the hunters. 



On the other hand, in Kamschatka, according to Dr. Guillemard, the sea-otter 

 is always shot with a bow and arrows. " 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 a curve in the opposite direction 

 when unstrung. The arrows are of wood for three-quarters of their length, with 

 feathers fitted 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. When the otter is hit, the barb, which 

 is very loose, becomes at once detached, and if the animal gain the sea, its where- 

 abouts is indicated by the arrow floating above it." 



The skin of .the sea-otter is perhaps the most valuable of all furs, 

 and when prepared for use has all the long hairs removed, leaving 

 only the under-fur. In Kamschatka Dr. Guillemard states that a good skin will 

 bring even as much as a hundred roubles to the native hunter, while a perfect 

 example has been known to realise, according to Mr. Poland, as much as 200 in 

 the European market. The average price in 1891 was 57 per skin. 



