252 iJATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIO:^rS IN ALASKA. 



During the last few years the catch of Sea Otters has produced in the neighborhood of three- 

 quarters of a million dollars annually to the companies engaged in trading in the Aleutian Islands 

 and the coast to the southeast. 



The Sea Otter was found formerly all along the Aleutian chain, but they are now almost or 

 quite unknown over a great part of this ground, and their principal resort at present is among the 

 reefs and outlying islets surrounding Sanak Island, near the eastern end, and on the Pacific side 

 of the Aleutian chain. The Aleutian hunters are brought to this point from the entire length 

 of the chain in vessels belonging to the trading companies, and are landed with their kyaks or 

 sealskin canoes and their implements of the chase. Here they remain for months, scouring the 

 sea in all directions or lying upon rocky points and islets, awaiting the approach of an otter 

 within long rifle-shot. Shot after shot is fired at the otter's head until one takes effect, and the 

 body IS brought in by the surf. The noise of the waves on the rocky shore drowns the noise of 

 the gun and so prevents the animal becoming alarmed until it is hit. 



The otters have a habit of rising with their head and nearly half their body out of the water, 

 while they deliberately examine the shore they are approaching, and this iisually gives the hunter 

 an opportunity for a fatal shot. 



While the writer was at Sanak Island in May, 1877, a large hunt was being arranged, and 

 some twenty-five or thirty men were preparing to go to a hunting place some 10 or 15 miles to 

 seaward in their small skin canoes. In a hunt of this character the boats form in a long line 

 on the hunting ground and then sweep the sea, watching for an otter. The moment one is seen 

 the nearest hunter throws his spear and stops where the animal went down. The other hunters 

 make a wide circle and watch for the animal's reappearance. This manoeuvre is repeated until the 

 otter becomes exhausted and is an easy prey. 



Of necessity the hunters have rules governing the hunt, and one of the most important is 

 that when an animal is struck by several spears the owner of the spear nearest the head has the 

 j)rize. 



In some places when the hunters go ashore after a successful hunt it has been the custom of 

 the Eussian priests to be at the landing place, and after inspecting the catch to collect tithes at 

 once. As a result some of the finest skins went into the hands of the priests and from them 

 found their way into the hands of the traders at a round price. 



In winter, when heavy gales sweep the Pacific from the north, the otters take refuge upon the 

 rocks lying out at sea, and frequently thrust their heads into bunches of kelp to protect them 

 from the wind and spray. As the gale shows signs of breaking some of the best and most daring 

 hunters leave Sanak and run down before the wind to these rocks, and under cover of the roar of 

 wind and sea they land, and, creeping silently up to the cowering otters, kill them by striking them 

 on the head with a heavy wooden club. 



Elliott mentions an instance in which two brothers secured seventy-eight otters in less than 

 two hours in this manner, and I learned of a number of instances in which a smaller number were 

 secured. Another mode of capturing these animals was practiced by the Atka and Attn Aleuts 

 at the western end of the chain before the otters were almost exterminated there. Nets from 16 

 to 18 feet long and from 6 to 10 feet wide were spread on kelp beds frequented by the animals, and 

 when the latter came ashore they became entangled in the coarse meshes and seemed paralyzed by 

 fear, so that they were easily taken by the hunter. Sometimes several were taken at once in a 

 single net, and although the otter is a powerful animal yet they did not struggle sufiBciently to 

 injure the net in the least. These nets were also set in holes and caves at the base of water- 

 washed cliffs, where otters were known to " haul out." 



When the otter is surprised on shore it starts at once for the water, and can only be stopped 

 by being killed. On land they move with a waddling motion if not alarmed, but if startled they 

 progress by a succession of short leaps. 



The traders at Sanak told me that the greatest care is exercised to keep all signs of human 

 occupation away from the beaches where the otters come out, and when the wind blows toward 

 the hunting-ground all fires are extinguished, as the animals have an acute sense of smell and are 

 very shy. They rely more upon the sense of smell than either upon sight or hearing. 



