Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-04-06
THE ALEUT HUNTERS
PERILS OF WIND AND WAVE IN QUEST
OF THE SEA OTTER.
Their Hunting Is the Very Incarna-
ton of the Storm Itself as They
PIow Through Surf and Rocks I'm
Their Fragile Bidarkas.

Their Hunting Is the very incarna-
ton of the storm Itself as They
PIow Through Surf and Rocks I'm
Their Fragile Bidarkas.
U:naIaska. westward of the Aleutian
chain of islands, and Kadiak. just
south of the great Alaskan peninsula,
were the two main points whence ra-
dated the hunting flotillas for the sea
otter grounds. Formerly a single Rus
sian schooner or packet boat would
lead the way with n procession of a
thousand bidarkas. Later schooners,
thirty or forty of them. gathered the
hunters at some main fur post, slowed
the light skin caiques In piles on tue
decks and carried the Aleuts to the
otter grounds. This might be at Adka,
where the finest otter hunters in the
world lived, or on the south shore OF
Unalaska, or in Cook inlet, where
the rip of the tide runs a mill race, or
Just off Kadiak on the south coast,
where twenty miles of beach powders
and surf waters and little islets of sea
kelp provide ideal fields for the sea OF
ter. Here the sweeping tides and BOOM
tumbling seas that the shy, wary otter
alert as an eagle. does not easily get
scent or sound of human intruder.
Surf washes out the scent of the man
track. Surf outsounds noise of the man
killer, and no fires are lighted, be it
winter or summer, unless the wind is
straight from the southwark, for the
sea otter always frequents the south
shores. The only provisions on the car
ryinG schooner are hams, rancid butter
or grease, some rye bread and flour;
the only clothing, what the Aleut hunt
ers wear.
No sooner has the schooner Sheered
off the hunting grounds than the Aleuts
are over decks with the agility of per-
forming monkeys, the schooner captain
wishing each good luck. the eager hunt
ers leaping into their bidarkas follow
ing the lead of chief. The schooner
then returns to the home harbor. leav-
ing the, hunters OH islands as bare as
planned board for two, three, four
months. Upon the Commander group
otter hunters are now restricted to the
use of the net alone, but formerly the
nature of the hunting was determined
entirely by the weather. If n tide ran
with heavy surf and wind landward to
conceal sound and sight the hunters
lined along shore of the kelp beds and
engaged in the hunt known as surf
shooting. Their rifles would carry 1000
yards. Whoever saw the little round
black head bob above the surface of
the water shot, and the surf wash car
ried in the dead body.
If the weather wis dead calm, fog or
clear, bands of twenty and thirty men
deployed in n circle to spear their quar-
ry. This was the spearing surround.
Or if such a hurricane gale was churn-
ing the sea that gusty spray and sleet
storm washed out every outline, sweep
ing the kelp beds naked one minute.
them with mountainous
rollers that Numbered up the rocks the
next, the Aleut hunters risked life,
scudded out on the back of the raging
storm. now riding the rollers, now dip
ping to the trough of the sea. now
scooting with lightning paddle strokes
right through the blasts of spray
athwart wave wash and trough. straight
for the kelp beds or rocky powders,
where the sea otter must have been
driven for refuge by the storm.
This hunting is the very incarnation
of the storm spirit itself, for the wilder
the gale the more sea otter have come
ashore. the less likely they will be to
see or hear or smell the hunter. Calf
or paddle in hand. the Aleut leaps from
rock to rock or dashes among the tum-
bling beds of tossed kelp. a quick
blow of the 'bludgeon-the otter never
knows how death came This is the
club hunt. But where the shore is
with caves and narrow
ihlets of kelp fields there is n safer
kind of hunting. Huge nets. now made
of Irvine, formerly of sinew. with
wooden floaters above, iron sinkcrs be-
low, are spread athwart the kelp fields.
The tide sweeps in, washing the net
fat. And the sea otter swims in with
the tide. The tide sweeps out. washing
the net up, but the offers are enmeshed
in a tangle that holds neck and feet.
This is perhaps the best kind of otter
hunting, for the females and young can
be thrown back in the sea.
For provisions the Aleut has brought
very little from the ship. He will de-
pend on the winds driving in dead
whale or ON the fish of the shore or on
the eggs of the sea birds that nest on
hese rocks millions upon millions, such
nyriads of birds they seem to crowd
each other for foot room. and the noise
Of their wings is like Il great wind. He
himself is what any race of men would
become in generations of such n life.
His skin is more like bronze than leath-
er. His chest is like bellows. but his
egs are Ill developed from the cramp-
ID posture of knees In the manhole.
No landsman's still hunt affords the |
thrilling excitement of the otter hunt |
,r's spearing surrounds. Fifteen or |
little skin skiffs, with two |
Or three men in each, paddle out under |
D chief elected by common consent |
Whether fog or clear, the spearing is |
lone only in calm weather
The long line of bidarkas circles ST.