Page:Furcountryorseve00vernrich.djvu/103

 THE GREA T BEAR LAKE, 5 I cries and calls, eider ducks, whistlers, spotted redshanks, " old women," those loquacious birds whose beak is never closed, skimmed the surface of the lake. Hundreds of puffins and guillemots with outspread wings darted about in every direction, and beneath the trees strutted ospreys two feet high — a kind of hawk with a grey body, blue beak and claws, and orange-coloured eyes, which build their huge nests of marine plants in the forked branches of trees. The hunter Sabine managed to bring down a couple of these gigantic ospreys, which measured nearly six feet from tip to tip of their wings, and were therefore magnificent specimens of these migratory birds, who feed entirely on fish, and take refuge on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico when winter sets in, only visiting the higher latitudes of North America during the short summer. But the most interesting event of the day was the capture of an otter, the skin of which was worth several hundred roubles. The furs of these valuable amphibious creatures were once much sought after in China ; and although the demand for them has con- siderably decreased in the Celestial Empire, they still command very high prices in the Russian market. Russian traders, ready to buy up sea-otter skins, travel all along the coasts of New Cornwall as far as the Arctic Ocean ; and of course, thus hunted, the animal is becoming very rare. It has taken refuge further and further north, and the trackers have now to pursue it on the shores of the Kamtchatka Sea, and in the islands of the Behring Archipelago. " American inland otters are not to be despised, and those which frequent the Great Bear Lake are worth from £50 to X60 each." The Sergeant was right ; magnificent otters are found in these waters, and he himself skilfully tracked and killed one in the pre- sence of his visitors which was scarcely inferior in value to those from Kamtchatka itself. The creature measured three feet from the muzzle to the end of its tail ; it had webbed feet, short legs, and its fur, darker on the upper than on the under part of its body, was long and silky. " A good shot. Sergeant," said Lieutenant Hobson, who with Mrs Barnett had been attentively examining the magnificent fur of the dead animal. " Yes, Lieutenant," replied Felton ; " and if each day brought us such a skin as that, we should have nothing to complain of. But much time is wasted in watching these animals, who swim and dive
 * But/' added Sergeant Felton, after the preceding explanation,