486 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jttlt 4, 1888. 



HUCKLEBERRY RUN, 



TN the good old days Huckleberry Run was one of the 

 most attractive bits of ground that it ever fell to my 

 lot to discover. Nearly a half century has passed since 

 I first saw it. I had been having a glorious run with the 

 hounds and had kept pretty well up with them, but rey- 

 nard had found it too hot for him and had taken a course 

 that had led straight away, and I was completely thrown 

 out. Gaining the top of a hill, I listened to the glorious 

 music of the eager dogs until tbey were nearly out of 

 hearhag, when I discovered that they were bearing to the 

 right, and I started down the slope to head them off. 

 Coming to a large patch of alders at the head of quite a 

 valley, I saw within their depths the welcome sparkle of 

 water. My long tramp through the snow had made me 

 thirsty, and I was soon at full length beside one of the 

 loveliest springs that I ever beheld. The basin was 

 about the size and depth of a large washtub, with a mosBy 

 rim, from which the snow had melted. The bottom was 

 of pure white sand, through which the sparkling waters 

 bubbled in mimic fountains, filling the basin and over- 

 flowing, forming a goodly stream that meandered in 

 eccentric curves and abrupt turns through the valley lie- 

 low. Already half in love with the spot> I turned back 

 above the spring and took a long look at the beautiful 

 valley, beautiful even in its mantle <Jf snow and with its 

 wealth of trees and shrubbery stripped of their glory by 

 the chill blasts of winter; beautiful in its harmony of out- 

 line, with its wooded slopes and gracefully curved knolls, 

 around which the little brook, with its fringe of spread- 

 ing alders and drooping willows, wound in loving em- 

 brace, ever trilling a gladsome song that even its icy 

 fetters could not hush. 



So fascinated was I with the loveliness and quiet beauty 

 of the peaceful valley that the heretofore all-absorbing 

 interest in the excitement of the chase was completely 

 driven from my thoughts. Wandering down the glade 

 in a half dreamy state, picturing to myself the glories 

 that would come in spring time to crown with regal splen- 

 dors this very queen of happy valleys, I was suddenly 

 brought back to earth by the tumultuous roar of quick- 

 beating pinions as a covey of grouse rose at my feet and 

 sought refuge ia a coppice of white-armed birches that 

 covered a gentle slope on the opposite side of the run. 

 This was in the callow days when the possession of a gun 

 was but a dream. Yet the sound of the whirring wings 

 was as sweetest music to my ear, striking a chord that 

 through all the years has never ceased to vibrate with a 

 tuneful harmony that the cares and strife of a busy 

 world have never stilled. 



When next I saw the charming spot the grass was 

 green on the beautiful slopes, the early flowers were 

 blooming everywhere, and the melody of countless song- 

 sters filled the air with a harmony that lute and lyre and 

 sounding brass can never hope to rival. Sauntering 

 through the wooded aisles or stretched at length in the 

 bright sunshine, ever greedily drinking in the beauties 

 of the lovely valley, the partial enchantment that stole 

 upon me on that bright winter day when first I gazed 

 upon the scene was now complete and I was the willing 

 captive and ardent worshipper of the woodland spirit 

 that ruled so fair a realm. My boyish love strengthened 

 with the years, and very many of the happiest hours of 

 my life were passed in the beautiful spot I had learned 

 to love so well. Often would I with pliant rod steal 

 along the banks of the sparkling brook and entice from 

 its many inviting pools the gamy trout, and when the 

 crisp October days were cbme what glorious sport it was 

 to roam with dog and gun through this very home of the 

 shy woodcock and lordly grouse! What days of delight 

 were those! What treasures were then laid up in mem- 

 ory's storehouse to cheer and brighten lonely hours, 

 when health and worldly things all went wrong. 



Much I owe to the memory of the dearly-loved spot. 

 Alas ! the beauties of the once lovely valley are now but 

 a memory. The dainty woodland sprite that once pre- 

 sided over the fairy realm has sorrowfully taken her 

 departure and the spirit of " improvement " now reigns 

 supreme; cold and darksome granite walls imprison the 

 once free-flowing spring, and its bright waters are forced 

 to crawl through the confines of a narrow tttbe. The 

 willows and spreading alders that graced the banks of 

 the sparkling brook have given place to a rank growth of 

 grass, while the brook itself is but a straight and narrow 

 ditch of mud and slime. Unsightly, half-decayed stumps 

 are all that remain ©f the magnificent forest, waving 

 corn disfigures the gentle slope where stood the white- 

 armed birches, and sordid potatoes flaunt their ugly leaves 

 over the grave of the sweet-scented flowers. The soft 

 whistle of the woodcock and the love call of the grouse 

 will be heard in their once happy home nevermore. 

 The wondrous picture of nature's fair handwork has been 

 disfigured beyond recognition ; the beauties of the fondly 

 remembered spot have be»en ruthlessly blotted out, and 

 my heart is filled with sorrow as for the loss of a dearly 

 lovei one. 



Alas! that my eyes should have beheld the ruin wrought 

 to embitter the fondly cherished memory of the beautiful 

 ralley with the knowledge of its utter desolation. 



Shadow* 



THE FUR FISHERIES OF THE NORTH-' 

 WEST SEAS. 



LBy a Staff Correspondent.] 

 VI. — SEA OTTER HUNTING. 



ANOTHER fur-bf aring m. mmal found in these wa ters is 

 the sea otter, whose pelt is even more beautiful and 

 more valuable than that of the fur seal. Except in its 

 marine life the. habits of this animal in no respect resemble 

 those of the seals. Unlike them, it is of a shy andsolitary 

 nature and is never found in large companies. 



The home of the sea otter is in the North Pacific Ocean. 

 On the American coast it is fouud as far south as Lower 

 California, while on the Asiatic side its range extends 

 south to beyond Japan. Its center of abundance, how- 

 ever, is along the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska, 

 the Aleutian Islands, the coast of Kamtchatka and the 

 Kurile Islands. The great value of the sea otter's fur has 

 led to its constant pursuit, and though formerly it was 

 abundant, it is now extremely rare. Good skins bring 

 from one to five hundred dollars each, and it is not strange 

 that the sea otter is being: rapidly exterminated. 



Up to the latter part of the last century the sea otter 

 was found in great numbers in the waters of Alaska. 

 During the first year of the occupation of the Island of 

 St. Paul two Russian sailors killed there no less than 

 5,000 of these animals. Barranov, in 1840, took to the 

 Ohkotsk from Alaska 15,000 skins, which we may assume 

 to have been the catch for the year of the Russian- Ameri- 

 can Fur Company. The destruction of the sea otter by 

 wholesale had then gone on for twenty years, and their 

 numbers were decreasing very rapidly, so rapidly that 

 twenty years later the whole catch reported from the 

 Aleutian Islands was but fifteen skins. As the animals 

 had become so scarce, it was no longer worth while to 

 hunt them, and the result was an increase in numbers, 

 but about the time of the cession of Alaska to the United 

 States the pursuit of the sea otter was renewed more 

 vigorously than ever. 



The Indians were accustomed to take these animals in 

 three ways: (1) by spearing; (2) by clubbing, and (3) by 

 means of nets. To these the white men have added a 

 fourth, surf shooting, and on the Asiatic coast they have 

 adopted the tactics of the Indians when spearing, but use 

 the rifle instead of the spear. 



When a party of Indians started out to spear sea otter, 

 they first elected a leader who should have control of the 

 hunt. Then 15 or 20 canoes, each holding two men, set 

 out for a ground where the animals were likely to be 

 found, and paddled slowly along in a long line. As soon 

 as an otter was seen the nearest canoe paddled toward it, 

 and, even if unable to approach near enough to spear it, 

 caused it to dive, and then swiftly moving forward 

 stopped over the place where it had disappeared. The 

 other canoes then scattered out about this first one as a 

 center, and watched for the appearance of the animal. 

 As soon as it was seen the nearest canoe made for it. and 

 the animal was forced to dive again. This was repealed 

 as quickly as possible, the object being to keep the otter 

 almost constantly under water, and to give it no time to 

 recover its breath. The dives became shorter and shorter, 

 and at last the exhausted animal was unable to dive at 

 all and was readily speared. 



Clubbing used to be. practiced during stormy weather 

 in winter. At such times the otter seeks shelter from 

 the gale among the kelp beds on a few outlying rocks 

 near the Islands of Saanach, The hunters creep upon 

 them from the leeward, the sound of their approach be- 

 ing drowned by the roaring of the wind and the flapping 

 of the kelp leaves, and kill the animals with short, heavy 

 clubs, Mr. Elliott mentions a case where two Aleut 

 brothers killed in this way 78 otters in an hour and a half. 



The nets used on the western Aleutian Islands, where 

 alone this method of taking the sea otter is practiced, are 

 from 15 to 20ft. long and from to 10ft. wide, with coarse 

 meshes. They are spread on the kelp beds to which the 

 otters resort, and the auimals becoming entangled in 

 them when they come out of the waters to rest on the 

 kelp, fall an easy prey to the hunters who aro watchiug 

 near by. 



On the coast of Asia, among the Kurile Islands, the 

 otters are hunted by white men somewhat after the In- 

 dian method. Three boats start out from tiie vessel and 

 row along parallel to the coast and about half a mile 

 apart. If an otter is discovered asleep, the boat nearest 

 to it tries to approach close enough to shoot it with the 

 rifle. If, however, it dives before a shot can be had, the 

 boat rows forward and stops over the point where the 

 animal disappeared. The other boats approach it, and 

 stop so that each one is at the angle of an equilateral tri- 

 angle whose sides are about half a mile long. At the 

 instant that the otter appears, one or more shots are fired 

 at it to make it dive again, and the boat stations itself 

 over the spot where it went down. In this way the chase 

 is kept up until the animal is tired out and it is possible 

 to shoot it. 



Often the course of the otter under water may be 

 traced by means of the bubbles which rise from it, and 

 sometimes, the hunters tell me, the animal can be seen 

 darting about under the water in most e-rratic fashion, 

 for it would appear that they do not always attempt to 

 escape by swimming straight away, but dire for conceal- 

 ment only. 



It is only within seven or eight years that the sea otter 

 has been hunted north of Yetorup Island, but of late 

 years they have been found much further north, and 

 there are some on the north side of Copper Island of the 

 Komandorski Group. The whole business of hunting sea 

 otter by white men on the Asiatic coast is said to have 

 been practiced for >a few years only. A man named 

 Kioaley, who was the first to systematically hunt these 

 animals there, is said to have secured, by shooting them, 

 480 otters in one season, 1873 or 1874. 



Surf Bhooting is practiced in Oregon and Washington 

 Territory, but chiefly in the vicinity of, and to the noith 

 of, Gray's Harbor. Formerly all the shooting was done 

 from the beach or from the bluffs, but as the otter became 

 scarcer, increasingly wary, and so more difficult to ob- 

 tain, other methods had to be adopted. 



The sea otter shooters of this coast devised the pla» of 

 building scaffolds in the water out beyond the surf, from 

 which to shoot. At the lowest tides in the spring they 

 plant firnaly in the sand three or four long poles bo that 

 they shall form the angles of a triangle or oi a square. 

 These are braced by means of slats nailed from one to the 

 other, which also form a ladder by which to ascend, and 

 at the top o£ the poles & platform is built with Bides and 



a roof, forming a sufficiently comfortable house, 40ft. 

 above the water's surface. These shooting scaffolds, or as 

 they are called locally, "derricks," give the otter shooter 

 great advantage. In distance he gains from 400 to 500ft., 

 while the elevation above the water greatly extends both 

 his range of view and that of his rifle. In fair weather 

 the shooter goes to his "derrick" before daylight in the 

 morning and returns at night to the shore, but sometimes, 

 when the tide is high and a heavy surf is rolling, it may 

 be impossible for him to get to it for a week at a time, or 

 he may be unable to reach the beach for the same period. 



The skill attained by these men in rifle shooting is 

 something almost beyond belief. It will be readily 

 understood that the head of the sea otter— the only part 

 that is seen above the water — is a very small mark, cer- 

 tainly not more than three or four inches in diameter, 

 and yet it is said these shooters not infrequently kill at a 

 distance of a thousand yards. Most of their shots are 

 made at 200yds. and over. They use heavy Sharps rifles 

 fitted with teloscopic sights, and shoot always from a 

 rest. When the sea otter is killed it sinks at once, and it 

 may be several days or a week before it rises to the sur- 

 face and is brought by wind and current into shore. The 

 hunters employ Indians to patrol the beach and secure 

 the dead animals, and in occasional instances where the 

 otter does not sink dogs are employed to bring it to land, 

 Owing to its exclusively marine habits and its great wari- 

 ness, we may assume that it will be many years before 

 the last sea otter shall have been killed, but it must 

 always be a very rare animal. 



VII. — CAN THE FUR SEAL BE EFFICIENTLY PROTECTED? 



That the fur seal fisheries of the Northwest seas ought 

 to be protected is a proposition so plain as hardly to be 

 disputed by any citizen of the United States. It is not a 

 question of sentiment, but one of business. An annual 

 revenue of over $300,000 would be lost to this Govern- 

 ment if the seal should be exterminated or greatly reduced 

 in numbers, and such an income will hardly be relin- 

 quished without an effort to retain it. If these valuable 

 possessions are to be preserved in their present condition, 

 the taking of seals except upon the land must be put an end 

 to. Numerous as these animals are on the pribyloff 

 Islands, they will certainly disappear unless protected. 

 The estimates by Capt. Bryant, already referred to, show 

 that of the young seals born each summer only from 10 

 to 15 per cent, survive to become adults; and if to the 

 destruction caused by their natural enemies we add the 

 slaughter of the females which takes place in water seal- 

 ing, it can readily be understood that before long the 

 number of young produced each year will begin to dimin- 

 ish, and that a time will come when our seal fisheries 

 will dwindle away and become valueless. 



If only males were killed on the water, comparatively 

 little harm to the fishery would ensue, because there are 

 always many more males on the islands than are needed 

 for breeding purposes. The slaughter of such males 

 might in time seduce the number of "bachelor" seal fit 

 for killing, but it would not affect the breeding stock, 

 which the destruction of these females does in the most 

 serious way. 



It seems, therefore, that it must be the policy of the 

 United States to protect these seal fisheries by every 

 means in its power. The wisdom of the system of super- 

 vision practiced while the seals are at the island has been 

 abundantly proved, but some method should be devised 

 to protect them, so far as possible, at all times and wher- 

 ever they may be. 



In the Pacific Ocean outside the three-mile limit the 

 United States has only those general rights which are 

 common to all nations, and an attempt to preserve the 

 seals on the higii seas could not be succes-fully made, 

 except, perhaps, as a matter of treaty, an agreement to 

 which all maritime powers should assent. In the Bering 

 Sea it has been claimed by our Government that the limit 

 of jurisdiction is not quite the same. 



One thing which seems clear is that the only special 

 rights in these waters possessed by the United States are 

 those which she acquired from Russia at the time of the 

 treaty by which Alaska was ceded. What these special 

 rights — if any — are, it is not my purpose to attempt to 

 show, but there are some historical facts bearing upon 

 this point which are of interest. In September of the 

 year 1821, Russia, by an imperial ukase, laid claim to the 

 whole of the North* Pacific Ocean, from Bering Straits 

 south from the parallel of 51 degrees north latitude, and 

 to the pursuits of commerce, whaling and fishing, and all 

 other industry in these waters, and forbade "all foreign 

 vetsels not only to land on the coast and ■ islands belong- 

 ing to Russia, as stated above, but also to approach them 

 within less than 100 Italian miles." At this time the 

 coasts washed by this part of the North Pacific were for 

 the most part Russian territory, and her claim seems to 

 have been, made on the ground that the waters named 

 constituted a shut sea (mer fermee). The position of 

 Russia was disputed by Mr. Adams, and after much 

 negotiation, a convention was concluded between the 

 United States and that country, and was ratified in Wash- 

 ington, January, 1825, by which it was agreed that the 

 respective citizens or subjects of the high contracting 

 powers should neither be disturbed nor restrained either 

 in navigation or in fishing or in the power of resorting to 

 points not already occupied for the purpose of trading 

 with the natives, gave under certain conditions, which 

 relate chiefly to illicit traffic in spirituous liquars, fire- 

 arms, etc. In February of the same year (1825) a treaty 

 essentially similar in character was entered into between 

 Russia and Great Britain. 



If the claim made by Russia in 1821 had been confined 

 to the waters of Bering's Sea, it may perhaps be doubted 

 whether any nation would have attempted to controvert 

 it, since a fairly good showing might have been made 

 that these waters, under the conditions then existing, 

 were in fact a shut sea. But Russia attempted to grasp 

 too much, and invited an attack upon her position. 



By the treaty of March 30, 1867, Russia ceded to the 

 United States all her possessions on the North American 

 continent. The western boundary of Alaska as defined 

 by that treaty is as follows: 



"The western limit within which the Territories and Domiuions 

 conveyed are contained passes through a point in Behring's 

 Strait, on the parallel of 65° 80' north latitude at its intersection 

 by the meridian which passes midway between the Island of 

 Krusenstern, or (rgnalook, and the Island of Ratmanoff, ^r Noon- 

 arbook, and proceeds due north, without limitation, into the same 

 Frozen Oeean, The same western limit, beginning at the same 

 initial point, proceeds then Id s straight course, nearly southwest, 

 through Behnng's Strait and Behring's Sea, so as to pass midway 

 between the northwest jwixif, of the Island of &u Lawrence aud 

 tfcs southeast peiat of Cape Ohcraltotalsi to the msridiaE at 178» 



