A NEW FUR-SEAL ROOKERY 
159 
We were hunting off the north end of Rashau, and 
had 44 raised ” an otter which had taken to a tide- 
rip which formed off the point. A heavy fog-bank 
was drifting up towards us, and I signalled my boats 
to pull in to the rocks, there to wait for the fog to 
pass. My second hunter followed me into a sheltered 
bight amongst the rocks, but the third man did not 
turn up. Presently we heard a shot, followed by 
several more, fired in quick succession. Knowing 
he was near the tide-rip, we knew something unusual 
had happened, so pulled out in the direction of the 
firing, and found the boat in the rip half full of water. 
With difficulty we got the men into our boats, and 
towed her in to the shore, where we hauled her up 
and temporarily repaired her. It turned out that 
the hunter had foolishly pulled into the rip after 
an otter, where it was, of course, useless to follow 
the beast even in clear weather, and the rough sea 
had caused him to stumble in his boat, and blow a 
hole in the bottom of it with his rifle. He tried to 
stop the leak by stuffing his socks into the hole and 
split plank, but the water came in faster than it 
could be bailed out, and he then fired for assistance. 
It was very fortunate we went to him as quickly as 
we did; otherwise the whole boat’s crew would 
certainly have been drowned. Whilst at Rashau 
we traded for three otter-skins and eleven beautiful 
foxskins, getting the lot for 8 pounds of powder, 
13 pounds of tobacco, seven boxes of caps, some lead, 
old clothes, biscuit, soap, and a few other articles. 
During July, while at Yetorup, we heard from 
the natives that a Sendai fishing-boat had drifted 
ashore in Bear Bay, at the north-east end of the 
island, with two men in it alive, but in an exhausted 
