. Our country: West. fish, which each man has brought for support during thehunting trip, are carefully husbanded here. The closestattention is given to the fishing gear, the sea-castings on thesurf-beaten beaches, and the indigenous water-fowl, for upon HUNTING THE SEA-OTTER. 6l these natural resources the party has to live substantially forthe next six weeks or three months, as the case of agreementwith the trader happens to be. Parties are usually made up of forty or fifty natives> withfifteen or twenty canoes. Some one of them is recognized bycommon consent as chief, and he orders their
. Our country: West. fish, which each man has brought for support during thehunting trip, are carefully husbanded here. The closestattention is given to the fishing gear, the sea-castings on thesurf-beaten beaches, and the indigenous water-fowl, for upon HUNTING THE SEA-OTTER. 6l these natural resources the party has to live substantially forthe next six weeks or three months, as the case of agreementwith the trader happens to be. Parties are usually made up of forty or fifty natives> withfifteen or twenty canoes. Some one of them is recognized bycommon consent as chief, and he orders their his direction they launch their canoes early in thedawning, and range themselves out over the sea in a long line,moving forward and abreast over the water with interv^als ofseparation between the canoes as wide as the weather willpermit sight and sound to establish communications. In this method a fleet of twenty canoes will range abreastover a line on the water of nearly a mile and a half in Each man is able instantly to flash a signal to his neighbor,so that if an otters head is discovered by any one man in thislong reach of inspection, the knowledge of such a discovery isat once known to every one of the hunters in the party. The man who makes the announcement of seeing an otterat once urges his canoe toward the exact spot where, in therolling, tumbling water, its black head and glittering eye wereseen during the instant it appeared. Upon the bubbling wakeof its disappearance the natives stop their canoe, and hold 62 HUNTING THE SEA-OTTKR. their paddles up high in air, and every other canoe in the linenow hastens to take its position in a large circle around them. The point where the otter dove down is the centre of thecircle. The otter when it comes up for breath must now rise,in fifteen minutes, at the most, somewhere within the range ofone of the hunters spears. As it rises, that native nearest toits popping eyes and wide expanded nostrils at onc
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectwestusdescriptionand
