134 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
This experience taught me it was not safe to 
take too great risks with such a man left in charge. 
The men in the boats lose confidence unless they 
know the shipkeeper is on the look-out all the time 
to render them assistance in case of need. 
Otters were fairly numerous, and on July 23 we 
ran into a cc school ” of about forty, and succeeded 
in getting seven before the breeze spoiled the hunt¬ 
ing. From August 5 to 23 we had no hunting 
weather. In that interval we had the misfortune 
to get into a heavy tide-rip in the straits between 
Yetorup and Kunashiri. It was dead calm, and we 
could not work out of it. The vessel rolled to her 
rails. It was impossible to stand on deck, and 
nothing could be cooked in the galley. For a day 
and a half we had to put up with this, and then, a 
little breeze coming, we at last worked into the 
coast, and let go anchor amongst the rocks, glad to 
get a rest and a chance to cook some food. Some 
of the tide-rips in these straits are exceedingly bad 
and dangerous. No one who has not seen them 
would ever believe the water could get into such a 
turmoil of swirling and combing waves without wind 
to create them. An open boat would not have the 
least chance in one of these rips. 
On September 18 we were lying in a small bight 
called by the hunters Miller’s Hole, the schooner 
Caroline being there also. A heavy swell was rolling 
in, caused by a south-east gale, which had just 
abated, the wind shifting to north-west. Across the 
mouth of the bight was a reef with about 12 to 15 
feet of water on it. With the high swell, it was 
breaking right across in big combers, except for a 
few feet in the middle. The Caroline had fouled 
