166 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
him, but keeping out of his reach, had no effect 
except to make him angry; he would make two or 
three bounds in my direction, causing me to retreat. 
At last I picked up a good-sized piece of rock, and, 
letting him come within easy distance, I threw it 
with all my might at his jaws, breaking some of his 
teeth. This was my last attempt; it made no differ¬ 
ence to him, but the muscles of my shoulder were 
so badly sprained by the force with which I threw 
the rock that I could not use my arm properly again 
for a long time ; indeed, I feel the effects to this day. 
This put a stop to my sealing, and I had to remain on 
board the schooner. Later on, when hunting, I had 
to shoot from my left shoulder for some time. 
We gave Srednoy a rest until July 8, as the weather 
was too bad for us to venture there. On July 8, 
in the afternoon, we ran across and anchored. 
There was too much surf to land, but we killed two 
otters in the kelp-patch. We could see large numbers 
of seals, at least 2,000, hauled up. The next day 
we landed, and during the following seven days 
secured 1,960 seals, which were as many as we had 
salt for. On July 10 there was some unfortunate 
waste, about four or five hundred skins being spoiled. 
Not being able to go ashore myself on account of my 
arm, I sent my shipkeeper, who wanted to show his 
smartness and beat the record of our day’s work. 
Instead of killing pods of about 100 at a time, and 
getting their skins off before they began to heat, he 
made a drive of over 700. By the time 350 were 
skinned the carcasses of the rest had heated so much 
that the fur loosened, and could be stripped off with 
the hand; if a carcass were trodden upon, great 
patches of fur were stripped off. These all had to 
