The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-06-10
HUNTING THE SEA OTTER.
Exciting and Dangerous Sport al
Gray's HarbOr.

A letter from Tacoma, Wash, says:
From May to October is a busy time
with sea otter hunters on the shores or
Gray's harbor. 1t is not generally
known that a large percentage OF the
fur of that animal comes from that To-
cality, but it is fact. For good
many years a large number OF men
have enjoyed a large income each year
from the sale of the pelts of sea offers
killed along the rocky shores OF Gray S
harbor.
The hunting grounds extend from
Damons point to Point Greenville, and
| it is for the most part dreary stretch
of rocky coast beaten by a heavy surf.
The coat of the sea otter is one of the
most valuable of furs Many of the
| hairs are tipped with white or silver,
giving it kind of luster or sheen that
no other fur possesses. The peltS are
readily sold at from $3.50 to $500 each,
and the majority of them go to Europe,
where they are wrought into garments
for the nobility.
! The method employed in hunting the
animal is peculiar and possesses an ele-
ment of danger that renders it exciting.
The offers are secured by shooting, and
as they are too shy to expose them
selves to the aim of the hunter by leav-
| ing the water, the hunter is obliged to
! find an elevation that will give him a
| clear view of the surf.
For this purpose he erects on the
shore three strong poles, usually the
trunks of pine trees. They are firmly
| set in the sand in the form of a triangle
| twenty-five feet apart. The poles are
/ set on slant, so that the tops approach
each other closely. Strong Orders are
fastened to the poles, and on top of
them a floor is laid.
! Around the floor a wall of strong
planks is built. Short cleats of stout
wood are nailed to the inshore pole
about two feet apart. These form a
ladder that leads to the box at the
top. By this means the hunter is Gle
waited 40 feet above the shore, and as
the poles are set at a point midway
/ between high and low tide he is often
surrounded by a stretch of tumbling
water that shakes his roost as if il
was a reed.
| 1t is during q. storm when the water
4 is the toughest and the danger great
/ est. that the hunters chances for Sc
curing the game are best. Occasion
allv a tower is wrenohed from it's
/ foundation by the waves, and then the
hunter has a hand TO hand struggle for
/ his life. but he usually escapes, as a
part of his equipment is a life pre-
server that he wears at times when the
/ waves threaten his perch.
| AT low water the hunter climbs up to
his lookout armed with a rifle and car
/ rying a fieldglass. AS the tide begins
I TO rise the hunter sweeps the water
with his fieldglass, searching carefully
the swell just outside the breakers. 1t
/ is in that locality that the dark head
! of the game is first seen bobbing up
and down with the swing of the water.
AT first, the range is about 600 yards,
but as the tide rises it is brought
down to a hundred yards. When an
otter is sighted, the hunter takes care
! full aim at it and. does his best to send
a ball into the bobbing head.
That is a very difficult feat to ac-
/ complish in consequence of the motion
of the target and the trembling of the
perch under the pressure of the wind
; or waves. 1t is necessary for success
! that the hunter be a first class marks
man. and then it is estimated that not
more than one in hundred shots takes
| effect.
The bodies of offers that are killed
are cast up by the tide, where they are
| found by the hunters, who identity
/ them by means of marked bullets. BY
! an arrangement between the hunters
the towers are set along the shore at
a distance Of a half mile apart.
1t sometimes happens that hunter
| will climb to his perch and watch
through the tides for a week without
getting a shot, and it is not an uncom-
mon occurrence for a hunter to work
! the season through without securing a
single pelt, but the possibility of get
! ting hundreds of dollars easily and
! quickly lures him to his "crow's nest"
| as regularly as the seasons come. OF
| late the game has grown scarce, and if
! a hunter secures four pelts during the
season he is satisfied. Many of them,
! however, if the season is one in which
| there are few storms and they are
! lucky as we'll as careful in making
shots, come out at the end of the sea-
son with from $500 to $4,000 worth of
| fur to their credit.