Chapter VII: THE QUEST OF THE OTTER pp. 127-144

Searching for the Otter.—Exposure and Danger in Hunting
Sea-otters.—The Fortitude, Patience, and Skill of the Captor.—Altasov
and his Band of Cruel Cossacks.—Feverish Energy of the Early
Russian Sea-otter Traders.—Their Shameful Excesses.—Greed for
Sea-otter Skins Leads the Russians to Explore the Entire Alaskan
Coast, 1760-1780.—Great Numbers of Sea-otters when they were First
Discovered in Alaska.—Their Partial Extermination in 1836-40.—More
Secured during the Last Five Years than in all the Twenty Years
Preceding.—What is an Otter?—A Description of its Strange Life.—Its
Single Skin sometimes Worth $500.—The Typical Sea-otter Hunter.—A
Description of Him and his Family.—Hunting the Sea-otter the Sole
Remunerative Industry of the Aleutians.—Gloomy, Storm-beaten Haunts
of the Otter.—Saanak, the Grand Rendezvous of the Hunters.—The
“Surround” of the Otter.—“Clubbing” the Otter.—“Netting” the
Otter.—“Surf-shooting” Them.