THE SEA ELEPHANT. 121 



hence it is usually "minced" (the "horse -pieces" cut into thin slices) and put 

 into tight casks to prevent any waste of the oil ; then, when a smooth day comes, 

 they are rolled down the beach, and pulled through the rollers by the boats ; or 

 the tender is anchored near shore, a line is run to the vessel, and the casks hauled 

 alongside, hoisted in, and transferred to the ship, where the oil is tried out and 

 "stowed down" in the usual manner. 



As soon as the season is over — or, rather, when the time has come for the 

 ship to leave, either for home, or to find shelter in some harbor at the Island of 

 Desolation — the shore -party is supplied with provisions, all the surplus articles 

 that were landed are re -embarked, the heavy anchors are at last weighed, and 

 amid hail, snow, and sleet, the ship under her half- frozen canvas bounds over the 

 billows, and soon disappears in the ofBng. 



The vessels having departed, the officers and men left on the island resume 

 their daily occupations. Usually the number is divided into two "gangs," stationed 

 at sepai-ate places, where clusters of huts have sprung up for the use of those 

 belonging to the different vessels, who have from time to time made it a tempo- 

 rary abiding -place. Try-works are built, and a shanty is erected for a cooper's 

 shop. These two habitable spots are known as "Whisky Bay" and "The Point;" 

 the former being a slight indentation of the shore -line, where the Elephants in 

 countless numbers were found by the first vessel visiting there, which, as report 

 says, had a supply of "old rye" stowed in her run. The captain, in the heat 

 of his successful prosecution of the arduous business of procuring a cargo, gave 

 his men permission to "splice the main brace strong and often," so long as the 

 work went briskly on ; and it is humorously told that this noted landing-place was 

 "christened" at the cost of barrels of the beverage, thus securing to it a name as 

 lasting as that of the prominent headland on the borders of the Okhotsk Sea, well 

 known to whalemen as "Whisky Bluff." From day to day the separated parties, 

 living some thirty miles apart, hunt the animals for leagues along the shores, with 

 the varied success incident to season or circumstances ; and, although on the same 

 island, the face of the country is so broken- — being rent into deep chasms, walled 

 in as it were by giddy, shelving heights, making it impossible to travel, even on 

 foot, far inland toward its extremities, and the shores hedged in by sharp ridges 

 of basalt, stretching out into the sea — the two divisions know nothing of each 

 other until the vessels return, which is frequently after an absence of from eight 

 to twelve months, and during that time a thousand or more barrels of oil may have 

 been collected. 



Notwithstanding the hardships and deprivations that are undergone to make a 



MauINE MAMilALS. — 16. 



