about midnight
Curiously enough , there was another seal who thought that she would put off marrying till the next year , and Kotick danced the Fire-dance with her all down Lukannon Beach the night before he set off on his last exploration . This time he went westward , because he had fallen on the trail of a great shoal of halibut , and he needed at least one hundred pounds of fish a day to keep him in good condition . He chased them till he was tired , and then he curled himself up and went to sleep on the hollows of the ground swell that sets in to Copper Island . He knew the coast perfectly well , so about midnight , when he felt himself gently bumped on a weed-bed , he said , `` Hm , tide 's running strong tonight , '' and turning over under water opened his eyes slowly and stretched . Then he jumped like a cat , for he saw huge things nosing about in the shoal water and browsing on the heavy fringes of the weeds . `` By the Great Combers of Magellan ! '' he said , beneath his mustache .