330 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



The sea-otter was known originally to the Russians in Kamtchatka, 

 where it was called the sea beaver; but the discoveries of Behring con- 

 stitute an epoch in the commerce. His shipwrecked crew, com])elled 

 to winter on the desert island which now bears his name, found this 



animal in flocks, ignorant of men and innocent as sheep, so that 

 82 they were slauglitered without resistance to the number of more 



than 800. Their value became known. Fabulous prices were 

 paid by the Chinese, sometimes, according to Coxe, as high as 140 rou- 

 bles. At such a price a single sea otter was more than an ounce of 

 gold, and a flock was a gold mine. The pursuit of gold was renewed. 

 It was the sea-otter that tempted the navigator, and subsequent dis- 

 covery was under the incentive of obtaining the precious fur. Miiller, 

 calling him a beaver, says, in his "History of Eussian Discovery," 

 " the catching of beavers enticed many people to go to these parts, and 

 they never returned without great quantities, which always produced 

 large prices." All that could be obtained were sent to China, which 

 .was the objective point commercially for this whole coast. The trade 

 became a fury. Wherever the animal with exquisite purple-black fur 

 ai)peared he was killed; not always without effort, for he had learned 

 something of his huntsman, and was now coy and watchful, so that his 

 pursuit was often an effort, but his capture was always a triumph. The 

 natives, who had been accustomed to his furs as clothing, surrendered 

 them. Sometimes a few beads were their only pay. All the navigators 

 speak of the unequal barter. "Any sort of beads" were enough, accord- 

 ing to Cook. The story is best told by Meares, who says "such as were 

 dressed in furs instantly stripped themselves, and in return for a mod- 

 erate quantity of spike nails we received sixty-five sea-otter skins." 

 Vancouver describes the "humble fashion" of the natives in poor skins 

 as a substitute for the beautiful furs appropriated by their "Russian 

 friends." The i^icture is completed by the Russian navigator when he 

 confesses that "after the Russians had any intercourse with them" the 

 natives ceased to wear sea-otter skins. In the growing rage the sea- 

 otter nearly disappeared. Langsdorf reports them as "nearly extir- 

 pated, since the high prices for them induce the Russians for a momen- 

 tary advantage to kill all they meet with, both old and young. Nor can 

 they see that by such a procedure they must soon be deprived of the 

 trade entirely." This was in 1804. Since then the indiscriminate mas- 

 sacre has been arrested. 



Meanwhile, our countrymen entered into this commerce, so that Rus- 

 sians, Englishmen, and Americans were all engaged in slaughtering 

 sea otters and selling their furs to the Chinese until the market of Can- 

 ton was glutted. Lisiansky, on his arrival there, found " immense quan- 

 tities in American ships." By-and-by the commerce was engrossed by 

 the Russians and English. And now it passes into the hands of the 

 United States with all the other prerogatives belonging to this territory. 



FISHERIES. 



YIT. I come now to the Fisheries, the last head of this inquiry, and 

 not inferior to any other in importance; perhaps the most important of 

 all. What even are sea-otter skins by the side of that product of the 

 sea, incalculable in amount, which contributes to the sustenance of the 

 human family? 



Here, as elsewhere, in the endeavour to estimate the resurces of this 

 region, there is vagueness and uncertainty. Information at least is 

 wanting; and yet we are not entirely ignorant. Nothing is clearer than 



