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143 
killed during the first hour, but she was holding it 
as firmly as ever, until a shot, striking one of her 
paws, made her drop it; and in trying to regain it 
she was once more wounded. Again and again she 
made the attempt, all the time giving utterance 
to the most plaintive and sorrowful cries, but to no 
avail. To our mortification, however, we had to 
abandon the chase, and to be satisfied with the body 
of the dead pup, which we picked up. In the 
excitement of our eager pursuit of the otter we had 
failed to notice the rapidly rising sea, which was 
coming now in heavy rollers, and breaking with a 
thundering noise over the rocks. The murky look 
of the atmosphere and the black overhanging clouds 
at the horizon told us plainly what we had to expect 
if we lingered much longer here, at least eight or 
nine miles from the schooner, and, though the prey 
was still in view, we had to give up the chase and 
return to the vessel. 
“ The sun had disappeared behind the island, 
and it was getting dark as we neared the Pinnacles. 
A peculiar whistling sound, the sure precursor of 
wind, intimated that we had no time to lose ; so, 
putting forth our whole strength at the oars, we 
made the light hunting-boat fairly spin over the 
water. We had travelled some distance, when all 
at once, right under our stern, we heard the most 
unearthly cry imaginable ; so unexpectedly did it 
come, and so weird and piercing did it sound, that 
we were momentarily bereft of motion, until another 
cry alongside showed us the dark form of the otter 
we had been chasing, which was now following the 
boat, lamenting the loss of her offspring. At the 
same time the wind was over us : not a squall, but 
