490 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Oct. 19, 1912 
ming otter. These natives have a remarkably 
keen vision to detect and discriminate objects 
in the water. As soon as one of them sees an 
otter, he holds up his paddle and points until it 
is seen by all; then the boats advance toward 
it, trying to close the circle. When an otter 
first realizes the existence of danger, it raises 
its head to look, and sometimes rises quite high 
out of water. Then it dives and swims two or 
three hundred yards. All paddle rapidly in the 
direction which they think the otter has taken, 
for they can usually tell its course by the way 
it bends as it goes down. As soon as it comes 
up to breathe, one or two shoot to keep it down, 
while the others continue paddling and closing 
the circle. The otter keeps coming up, each time 
more out of breath, nearer and nearer some of 
the bidarkas, more and more quickly driven 
down by repeated shots. The circle grows smaller 
and smaller, until, gasping for breath, the hunted 
animal must rise high out of water—sometimes 
two feet—and recover for a moment. Now is 
the chance for a favorable shot, usually de¬ 
livered by the man in the bidarka which is ne r- 
est to the otter, though often two or more fire at 
the same time. The natives have Winchester rifles, 
and are excellent shots at objects in the water. 
"Sometimes an otter goes under a bidarka, 
and once outside the circle it usually gets away. 
Sometimes an otter is very cunning and raises 
only the tip of its nose out of the water to 
breathe, in which case it may escape, or more 
likely require a large number of shots to hit it. 
Swanson has seen more than fifty shots fired to 
secure one otter. The secret of success, and the 
most difficult part of the hunt, is to close the 
circle. When a good circle is made around an 
otter, it seldom escapes. Occasionally it takes 
seven hours to kill one, but an hour is the aver¬ 
age time. In the excitement of the hunt there 
is constant shooting and rivalry, but strange to 
say the natives seldom shoot one another. When 
a circle is made around more than one otter, a 
small proportion, perhaps one, is killed, but the 
operation is the same, although necessarily more 
irregular. A female is easily killed if she has 
a pup, because she will leave it only to dive, 
and always comes up close to it. When hit, if 
not killed immediately, she will grab the pup 
and hold it with her fore flippers until her death 
convulsions. The young one cannot dive, and 
often, after the dead mother has been picked 
up, it will swim up to the bidarka and bawl, 
when it can easily be taken alive. 
“Tributary to Prince William Sound are 
four widely separated feeding grounds of the 
sea otter: one off Point Steel, on the east end 
of Hinchinbrook Island; one off Wooded Island, 
near the southeast corner of Montague Island; 
one about midway between that and Middleton 
Island, near Wessell Reef, and the last off Cape 
St. Elias, on the southwest end of Kayak Island. 
The otters killed at this last point are said to 
be lighter in fur than those killed at the other 
places.” 
These notes were made in 1906. Since the 
sea otters have become very rare near Hinchin¬ 
brook Island and are seldom seen. - 
It was on Montague Island that Mr. Sheldon 
had a most astonishing experience with a bear, 
which he confesses may tax the credulity of his 
friends. He was hunting bears on May 13 and 
had started to climb to a basin, well back in 
.the mountains. 
"I went up the creek hearing water ouzels 
on the way, and finally emerged from a deep 
canon, through which the water rushed, leaping 
down here and there in cascades, and in some 
places under ice and snow. Just before reach¬ 
ing the foot of the basin I turned up the south 
ridge, keeping in the woods in order to get high 
on the mountain slopes, and keep my wind above 
any bears that might be feeding below, as it was 
blowing strong up the basin. I reached the top 
of the ridge at 1 p. m. The other side sloped 
down to a creek flowing from another basin, and 
at that point led abruptly up to the great moun¬ 
tain on tlfe south side of the basin I was to 
enter. Coming out of the timber I was at the 
foot of a conical hill 200 feet high and very 
steep; the top was covered with thick, stunted 
impenetrable spruce which extended ten feet 
down the slope and continued around it through 
a depression to more open timber beyond, where 
the hill joined the main mountain. I climbed 
this hill diagonally, looking on fine, red-tipped 
grass for bear tracks, but saw none. On reach¬ 
ing the spruces I passed around the edge of the 
trees, holding on to the branches for assistance 
in walking around the incline. 
“I went high up and tramped along the 
mountain side. The basin was beautiful, with 
high, rough mountains encircling ft. The air 
was filled with the rumble and roar of numerous 
snow slides. Starting high up, near the crests 
of the surrounding mountains, and appearing- 
like immense cataracts, the snow dashed over 
cliffs and fell through ravines, until it slid in 
great masses over the smoother ground below, 
piling up in huge mounds as it stopped. I 
noticed many marmots about, some sitting up, 
some running about the snow near the mountain 
tops. At different points high up in the snow 
bear tracks were visible. Reaching a good look¬ 
out I waited until five, watching carefully on all 
sides, but nothing appeared. • 
"Then I retraced my steps along the slope 
and reached the conical hill around which I had 
passed earlier in the day. I was circling near 
the top, holding on to the spruce branches with 
my right hand, while the butt of my rifle, with 
the barrel pointing- behind me, was resting over 
my left elbow. 1 had proceeded in this way a 
few steps when suddenly I saw, about eight feet 
away, on the curving border of the spruces, run¬ 
ning directly at me, what appeared to be a huge 
bear. 1 had just time to push forward the butt 
of my rifle and yell, when the bear collided with 
me, knocking me down. It seemed to turn 
slightly to the left as I pushed my rifle into it, 
and I clearly recall its shoulder striking my left 
hip, its head striking just above my left knee, 
while its claws struck my shin so that it is now 
black and blue. I had the sensation of one about 
to be mauled and mutilated. As I fell to the 
right, my rifle dropped, and in my confusion I 
grabbed with my left hand the animal's fur, and 
I remember having a quick foolish thought of 
the small knife in my pocket. 
“The bear was, I believe, more surprised 
than I. I felt its fur slip through my hand as 
it quickly turned to its right, and swinging about 
ran back over the hill without any attempt to 
bite or strike me. Rising as the bear wheeled, 
I picked up my rifle and shot as the animal was 
disappearing. The bullet struck it, evidently 
high in the back. Immediately I took up its 
trail, followed it down into the woods and on 
the flats for over an hour, and at last lost the 
impressions on hard ground. Its tracks showed 
that it had kept running for more than a mile, 
and then settled down to a walk on the timbered 
ridges, continuing to a flat country below. For 
the first mile I noticed at intervals considerable 
blood on the leaves of the brush and trunks of 
trees about three feet up from the ground, but 
afterward saw no more. 
“Who will believe this remarkable incident? 
Certainly if another had related it to me, I 
might have thought it some mistake, owing to 
excitement. 
“Twice I have had the good luck to see the 
action of a bear when it crossed, unex¬ 
pectedly, the fresh trail of a man—once in 
Mexico, and again last summer, on the Mac¬ 
Millan River, when a bear crossed Selous’s 
trail. In both cases the bear jumped in great 
fright and ran at full speed. In this case, when 
the bear met me, I was approaching the top of 
the hill by the simplest, in fact the only easy, 
route along the edge of the thick spruces. My 
trail, made earlier in the afternoon, came over 
the hill from the north side. I found that the 
bear had ascended from a direction diagonally 
opposite, and had reached my trail near the top 
just as I was approaching; running, it kept its 
course in the same direction, and took the 
natural route around the hill, close to the 
spruces, in order to enter the woods further on, 
where they were not so thick, or to make for 
the mountain. At this exact moment I hap¬ 
pened along, but, concealed by the curve of the 
spruces, and with the wind blowing- from the 
bear to me, it did not suspect my presence until 
I yelled at the moment of collision. The fact 
that it did not maul me, and ran so quickly, is 
positive proof of its having been completely 
surprised. Still, I do not care to repeat the 
sensations I experienced at that moment. Here 
is another case, where many would have re¬ 
ported a vicious charge. I regret having been 
in such haste to take up the trail that I 
neglected to photograph the spot.” 
Mr. Sheldon's account of his search for the 
Queen Charlotte caribou possesses a peculiar 
interest. He gives the history of this extra¬ 
ordinary animal, from the time when, in 1880, 
a fragment of a skull was sent out which was 
afterward described by Seton as a new species, 
Rangifer dawsoni, down to the present time. 
This elusive animal was sought for by Mr. 
Osgood of the Biological Survey in 1900, and 
the search was continued by various people, 
through the years until Mr. Sheldon went there 
in 1906, always with the same lack of success— 
except that tracks and other sign were found 
by Mr. Sheldon, as they had been found by 
some of his predecessors. However, he did not 
see caribou, and it was not until two years 
later that three of these animals were killed by 
two half-breeds, Matthew Yeomans and Henry 
White, and their skins reached the provincial 
Museum in Victoria, V. I. The first detailed 
description of this caribou is given as an ap¬ 
pendix of Mr. Sheldon’s book, and was written 
by Dr. Merriam, who inspected the specimens 
in 1911. They are very small in 'size, scarcely 
larger than a black-tailed deer, and the antlers 
are small and almost without palmation. This 
caribou is undoubtedly almost extinct. 
In his search for bears on Admiralty 
(Contimicd on page 506.) 
