326 • Notes on Otters. [zoe 



eight inches long, terminating in soft, round paws, while instead of 

 having hind legs like a land otter it has seal-like flippers, but unlike 

 the seal the otter has a round tail about a foot long, covered with 

 beautiful fur. 



In color otters vary somewhat. The young are a rich brown; 

 from this they change, in the adult animal, into a deep, glossy black, 

 the more valuable" skins being sprinkled with long white hairs, giv- 

 ing that silver-gray appearance which is so much prized. As they 

 grow older the white hairs predominate, so that some of the largest 

 skins will be grizzled gray all over, lighter on the belly and darker 

 on the back. The skin is very loose, lying almost in folds, so that 

 from an animal but little over three feet in length comes a skin 

 which easily stretches to six feet and over. The fur is very thick 

 and beautiful, and nearly an inch long, and has no full covering of 

 thick, coarse hair, as in the case of beaver and land otter skins. 



Mr. Damon, who lives on Damon's Point, which is the north spit 

 at the entrance of Gray's Harbor, once caught a young otter which 

 had wandered into the bay and become stranded on a sand spit near 

 his house. He brought the little fellow home, provided him with a 

 tub of water, and gave him all the care possible, but during the night 

 he escaped from the tub and was found dead in the morning. 



I also saw a cub that was killed by the Indians at the Ouinault 

 Reservation. It was brown all over, and the skin was worth about 

 fifteen dollars. 



Their principal food consists of clams and crabs, but they doubt- 

 less catch some fish also. They obtain their food by diving for it 

 right in the edge of the surf, and it seems as though the heavier the 

 breakers the more they enjoy the sport. When thev catch crabs 

 (which seem to form their principal diet), they come to the surface 

 of the water, and, floating on their backs, place the crabs on their 

 breasts and proceed to tear them to pieces with their short fore paws. 

 The Indians also claim that they carry their young in the same man- 

 ner. Many of the larger skins hav'e a worn spot on the breast owing 

 to its constant use as a table. 



There are some large beds of kelp a few miles off the coast, and 

 on these the young are born, usually two in number. Owing to the 

 fact of these animals living all th- year round in the cold waters of 

 the North Pacific, the fur seems to be just as good in the summer as 

 it is in the winter. 



