The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-01-04
SEAL AND OTTER HUNTING.
SAILORS FERROUS WORK IN
 NORTHERN SEAS.
An old Hunters Experience-HOw an
 Expedition Is Equipped and Sent Out -Men in the Small Boats and Their Duties When the Quarry is Sighted.

Dan Claussen is a seal and otter hunter, one of the best in the North Pacific and Boring Sea, having been at 1t more than twenty years. His blue eyes are yet steady and keen and can distinguish seal or otter on the water while his mates are uncertain and waiting for the report of the man with the glass. Then, too, he has the trick of the double shot and is a thorough sailor also. That is why he can get a lay at any time for from $4.50 to s for rlss- kills. The schooner in which Dan had sailed for the Far North had been turned back by a revenue cutter, and l was up in his cosey little flat in Centre place, San Francisco, to welcome him home, says writer in Forest and Stream.
 'In going on a sealing cruise we gen. orally start along the latter part of January or early in February and ex- pect to pick the herd on the way north along the coast about 4S or 45, degrees he said. "In the fall coming down they keep to the deep water, but re- turning they circle in to the coast The ordinary schooner of to-day is 90 or 100 feet long, about 25 feet beam and feet depth of hold. Some are, however, much smaller, and have cruised in twenty and forty ton boats In otter hunting we use even smaller craft in order to slip into inlets in the coast.
 "The rig of sealer will be two masts with main and fore courses, gaff top sails jibs and staysails. The time was when we did not have to carry so much canvas, but nowadays it takes big spread of cloth to catch enough wind to leave cutter. Generally such a craft would carry crew of thirty men, all told, three men for each of the eight boats, the captain, two mates, cook and helper and cabin boy. The boats are clinker built double-enders, 20 feet long and about 4 1-2 feet beam, in which a small mast can be stepped and a jib set on the stay. These boats are manned by three men each, the hunter, the boat puller and boat steerer; the two latter are allowed 50 cents each for every seal killed by their hunter. For the past few years I have had the same boat puller and steerer. When l get my lay, I hunt them up and they ship with me, They know my ways and ] know theirs, and I do not even have to speak when caution is necessary. If we have a successful season I also pay them something from my earnings in addition to that received from the owners.
 Say the lookout picks up the herd some morning along about 45 degrees north, the word is passed and the eight boats go over the side. In each boat there are two shot guns with cartridges carrying buckshot twenty-one pellets to the load; five or ten gallon keg of water and a box of provisions and a compass. The location of the herd is given, the captain lays a general course and the boats give way. We often range from 15 to 25 and 30 miles from inc schooner, somestimes a fog comes down and then
 "seals go in bands of from three or four to forty, but herd may consist of tens of thousands. In the old days l have seen the sea fairly alive with them for miles. They can sleep right on the water, while an otter does not If a. seal is asleep tirst-class boat steerer can run within six or eight wards without waking it. When the old bulls give the alarm the herd in hearing goes under water. The double shot is a trick and requires quick action on the part of the hunter. If two seals are close together the boatsteereI brings them in line for the hunter, who fires at the one ahead or furthest away and instantly depresses the muzzle oi the gun and plugs the nearest one. Al the first shot he fires directly over the nearest one, which always throws its head at the whistle of the shot, and then dives; that is the second which the hunter must utilize.
 When the herd goes down, we gC