144 OUR ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



they have caught as many as six at one time in one of these nets, 

 and that they frequently get three. The natives also watch for surf- 

 holes or caves awash below the bluffs : and, when one is found to 

 which a sea-otter is in the habit of going, they set this net by 

 spreading it over the entrance, and usually capture the creature, 

 sooner or later. 



No injury whatever is done to these frail nets by the sea- 

 otters, strong animals as they are ; only stray sea-lions and hair- 

 seals destroy them. There is no driving an otter out upon land if 

 it is surprised on the beach by man between itself and the water ; 

 it will make for the sea with the utmost fearlessness, with gleaming 

 eyes, bared teeth and bristling hair, not paying the slightest regard 

 to the hunter. The Attoo and Atkah Aleutes have never been 

 known to hunt sea-otters without nets, while the people of Oona- 

 lashka, and those eastward of them, have never been known to use 

 such gear. Salt-water and kelp appear to act as disinfectants for 

 the meshes, so that the smell of them does not repel or alarm the 

 shy, suspicious animal. 



