WEASEL FAMILY 



143 



footstep of man must be washed by many tides 

 before its trace ceases to alarm the animal, and 

 drive it from landing. 



Sea Otters are not polygamous. A pair will 

 usually mate for life. Neither are they social 

 animals. Only one at a time is usually met 

 with at sea, unless it is a mother with her young 

 one. 



The pelage is extremely valuable. In the days 

 when the animal was plentiful, skins brought 

 from $100 to $500 apiece. Now that it is fast 

 •disappearing, skins are sold for as high as $1500 



and even more. For this reason, the Sea Otter 

 is relentlessly hunted, although usually a hazard- 

 ous business, on account of the wild country 

 it inhabits. One of the first official steps to pro- 

 tect the Sea Otter was the setting aside of a 

 preserve on Afognak Island, on the southern 

 coast of Alaska, in 1892. This was placed under 

 the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Fish- 

 eries. Without such protection, it would be 

 doomed to extermination, and this despite the 

 fact that it is one of the shyest and keenest of 

 animals. 



AW^A-^'^SyT'^^ 



SEA OTTER 



The Sea Otter is an inhabitant of both coasts of the North Pacific: its southern limit on the American 

 side being the coast of Oregon. But it is now extremely rare 



