2i6 DESCRIPTION OF BERING ISLAND 



However, if he ran away before he could be reached, the other 

 men together chased him from the sea farther inland and gradu- 

 ally closed in on him by running, whereupon, no matter how 

 nimbly and adroitly the animal might be able to run, he would 

 finally tire^ and be killed. If, as often happened, we came upon 

 a whole herd together, each of us selected the animal that 

 seemed nearest to him, in which case the affair went off still 

 better. In the beginning we needed but scant effort, stratagem, 

 and dexterity, as the whole shore was full of them and they were 

 lying in the greatest security. Later on, however, they learned 

 to know our earpicks^^ so well that, when we spied upon them, we 

 saw them go ashore with the greatest care. They first looked 

 well about them ever^'where, turned their noses in all directions 

 in order to catch a scent ;^2 and, when after long looking about 

 they had settled down to rest, one would sometimes see them 

 jump up again in fright, look about anew, or go back to sea. 

 W^atchers were posted by them where\-er a herd was lying. 

 The malicious foxes, by waking them out of their sleep violently 

 or keeping them watchful, also thwarted us. We were therefore 

 compelled to search constantly for new places and to go hunting 

 farther and farther away, also to prefer dark nights to light ones 

 and blustering to quiet weather in order to get them, as our 

 maintenance depended upon it.^^ In spite of all these obstacles, 

 from November 6, 1741, to August 17, 1742, over seven hundred 



90 Instead of "he would finally tire" the MS has "he would finally 

 fall into our hands exhausted." 



91 "Ohrloffel." This word is facetiously used by Steller to designate 

 the clubs with which the sea otters were slain. Professor A. F. W. 

 Schmidt, of George Washington University, kindly furnished me with 

 the following quotation from Grimm's Worterbuch: "Bohemian ear spoon 

 or simply earspoon: a club-shaped, stout stick, cudgel (the Bohemian 

 peasants formerly carried stout cudgels which at the lower end had a 

 thick knob and because of their shape might be compared to an ear- 

 spoon)." (S) 



92 Instead of "to catch a scent" the MS has "to ascertain by smell 

 what was hidden from their eyes." 



93 From "in order to get them" to this point the MS reads only "in 

 order to steal upon them." 



