392 SPOR TING AD VENTURES 



bear the pain of the one and overcome the difficulty of sinking 

 the other. When it had been planted with two large bladders 

 it could not go far beneath the surface, owing to their buoy- 

 ancy, so was made a prisoner in a short time. This is the 

 method generally applied by this tribe in hunting all marine 

 animals, and that it is successful is evident by the amount 

 they earn during the hunting season, that being often from 

 twenty to one hundred dollars a day per man, if the weather 

 and luck are at all favourable. 



When the Indians intend to surprise a rookery of otters, 

 they generally select a tempestuous day for their enterprise, 

 as their chances of success are then the greater. Placing 

 provisions and short heavy clubs in their canoes, they land on 

 the islets as silently as possible, and when they find the 

 animals, the clubs are plied with such vigour that they fre- 

 quently kill from thirty to one hundred before the remainder 

 can seek refuge in the seething ocean. 



Such enterprises are frequently attended with danger, for 

 many a red man finds a watery grave where he went to find 

 a treasure. 



The peltries secured are, when dried, sold to the fur com- 

 panies, for sums ranging from thirty to one hundred dollars. 

 A good skin is about 6+4 feet, exclusive of the tail, as that is 

 always sold separately, it being generally given as a douceur 

 to the wife. Some otters attain a length of seven feet, how- 

 ever, but they are the giants of their family. 



Large numbers of these animals were killed formerly, but 

 they have become so scarce of late, owing to the war waged 

 against them, that it would seem as if they must soon become 

 unknown. 



Behring's sailors were most indefatigable in pursuing them, 

 as it seemed to open up an inexhaustible source of wealth ; and 

 the result was that nearly 115,000 skins were taken in the 

 eleven years from 1786 to 1797, so that many of the men 

 realized in this pursuit what was a fortune to them in Russia. 

 Not more than a fraction of this number can now be taken in 

 the same time, as they have been almost decimated in some 

 places. 



