214 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PKIBILOF ISLANDS. 



laud, go inland 5, 10, and even 15 furlongs. For they are misled by the roaring of 

 the wind in the trees and bushes and think they are going toward the sea, and that 

 what they hear is the roar of the waves. In this way a single huntsman often kills as 

 many as thirty or forty or more, and saves the meat as well as the skin. 



While the people hunt upon the ice, they are generally very careful to observe the 

 winds, for fear that by adverse winds they be carried, as not infrequently happens, 

 out into the open sea. It is not a rare thing for them to float up and down with the 

 ice upon the waves for three, four, five, and even six days, and then, with favoring 

 fortune and favoring winds, to be brought in again and come safely to shore. When 

 the wind blows from the other quarter the ice is drifted away. If it drifts along the 

 shore, the hunters follow the ice continually, for while the ice is drifting away, whether 

 by day or by night, the otter try to get back upon it again, and so the latter part of 

 the hunt is often richer than the beginning. The hunters wear snowshoes, in order 

 that the ice, which is often very thin, may bear their weight and keep them from 

 breaking through. Each shoe is from 5 to 6 feet long, 8 inches wide, and is fastened 

 to the foot with straps. 



As this hunt takes place upon the ice, it is considered good news all through the 

 Kuril Islands, Lopatka, Kronotski, and Avatcha that the ice has come. Moreover, 

 besides the otter, seals also and sea lions are brought in ui)on the ice. 



The hunting of the otter is planned for in the winter time, because the colder, 

 windier, and stormier the winter the greater the catch, and the milder the winter the 

 poorer the catch. Although in the years 1740, 1741, and 1742 great quantities of ice 

 with great numbers of otter drifted in, still the catch was very insignificant; but the 

 reason was that the ice was very thin and would not hold the hunters. 



In summer the otter are caught in four ways. (1) While lying upon their backs 

 asleep at sea they are speared from boats with harpoons. (2) Even when awake they 

 may be driven about in the sea by two boats until they are tired out and then speared, 

 for they can not live underwater for more than two minutes without breathing. If pur- 

 sued moderately, therefore, they swim along and soon get so out of breath that they can 

 flee no larther and are forced to stop. (3) When the tide is out they take refuge on 

 the rocks that rise up above the surface of the sea. There they sleep and are killed 

 by the hunters with clubs. Before the advent of the Russians they used in the same 

 way to come out on land to sleep on the shores of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands; 

 but ever since they began to be hunted for their skins to satisfy the avarice of man 

 they are never caught upon the mainland, or very rarely, when they have come there 

 unaware. (4) They are caught in nets. The nets are S])read above the water and 

 tied with stones to hold them firmly in position in not very deep places, where sea 

 weed grows in great quantities, for the otter feed upon shellfish and crustaceans that 

 live concealed in the sea weeds, and there they are caught in the nets or are killed 

 by the hunter, who comes upon them in his boat. Sometimes they carve out wooden 

 otters, paint them black, and set them afloat. The otter, seeing these images, swim 

 up and indulge in various strange capers about them, and by this trick are caught. 

 When they are caught in the nets they are so frantic that in their despair they bite 

 oft" their front feet; but if a male and a female are caught together they both lacerate 

 their skins terribly and knock out their eyes. 



We killed tliem on Bering Island with spears, nets, and, when they were lying 

 asleep or in the act of copulating, with clubs. 



