CAPTURE OF SEA OTTERS. 



41 



where it is not protected at all, is actually increasing on Copper Island, and yields, 

 besides a handsome return to the Government, suflflcient income to keep the natives 

 in comparative affluence, as this island can easily produce 200 skins a year. The 

 sea otter is there hunted by the natives in common, but the individual hunter secures 

 the price for the animal he catches. Only nets are allowed in their capture. The 

 Government buys all the skins from the natives at a certain fixed rate, 140 rubles for 

 the first quality, 75 rubles for thie second, and disposes of thera to the company as per 

 contract. 



I have made the following notes relative to a sea-otter expedition on Copper 

 Island August 29, 1897 : 



All the "promyshleniks" now in the village (24) started this morning at .9 a. m. 

 for Bobrovi Kameni in eight boats, three and four men in each boat, and each man 

 with four nets. Besides these, nets are also taken along and set for the men who 

 are absent doing duty on the seal rookeries as watchmen, 112 nets in all. The nets 

 are marked, and the sea otter belongs to the man in whose net it is caught, not to 

 the one who sets the net. The nets are from 20 to 25 fathoms long and about 4 feet 

 deep, with meshes 5 inches square. They are made by the natives of white American 

 cotton seine twine. The thickness of twine used varies between No. 16 and No. 36, 

 but the latter is chiefly employed. The floats are made of wood, ajid stones are used 

 for sinkers and anchors. The nets are set at various distances from shore and at any 

 angle to the shore, according to what the individual hunter considers the best. They 

 are set in the afternoon and taken in the next morning. The sea otters usually 

 seeking the lee side of the island, the nets are set accordingly. 



The following table, based upon official returns,' shows the gradual increase until 

 the present capacity of the island, about 200, was reached : 



Number of sea otters killed on Copper Island, 187^-1882. 



a Thrown out by tlie sea. There was evidently no hunt that year, 

 "authority of the overseer at Copper Island," gives 20 for 1879. 



Dybowski (Wysp. Komand., p. 64), upon the 



In his "Otchet" for 1893 the late Mr. Savitch presents a series of figures differing 

 considerably from the above. Not knowing exactly how to reconcile them, I reproduce 

 Savitch's figures, but would suggest that the latter probably refer to the years in 

 which the animals were killed, while Grebnitski enumerates them in the year in which 

 the skins were paid for, a solution corroborated by the close agreements of the totals 

 between 1872-1881. 



1 Grebnitski in Sbornik Glavn. Off. Dokument. Upravl. Vost. Sibir., Ill, 1882, Vip. 2, p. 91. 



