The Canada Otter 839 



may lurk in ambush for the tobogganing party and shoot one, 

 or perhaps two, before they can escape from range. 



If its trail is discovered in the winter snow, when evidently 

 the creature is frozen out of its safe refuge, the hunter follows, 

 and within a mile or two he usually gets an opportunity to 

 shoot the portaging voyageur. 



The fur of the Otter is cased. It is one of the best, hand- 

 somest, and most durable in the market. No matter how others 

 fluctuate, the price of Otter is always fairly high. The Winni- 

 peg market quotations for March 26, 1904, were: Prime 

 Otter, $6 to $12. 



At the London annual fur sales, held at Lampson's, 

 March, 1906, 2,517 Otters were sold. The highest price 

 reached was 210 shillings ($50.40) each, for 22 unusually good 

 black, first-class Labrador skins. The run of first-class dark 

 skins brought from 100 shillings ($24) to 150 shillings ($36), 

 and with 60 shillings ($14.40) as the run of ordinary dark 

 Otter, from which, according to size and colour, they graded 

 down as low as 10 shillings ($2.40) and 5 shillings ($1.20). 



During the eighty-five years, 1821 to 1905 inclusive, the 

 Hudson's Bay Company collected 890,901 skins of this species, 

 an average of 10,481 for each year. The lowest was 3,795 in 

 1829; the highest, 18,100, in 1830. The average for the ten 

 years, 1895 to 1905, was 8,898. 



Poland's lists show that during the seventy-one years, 1821 

 to 1 891 inclusive, 444,372 skins were taken by the other 

 American companies, an average of 6,258 each year. So that 

 the average annual catch of Otter for fur is about 17,000. 



