72 FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 1908. 



it is found scattered all over the mainland. At one time it was 

 abundant on the Alaska Peninsula, but at the present time only an 

 occasional specimen comes from there. The Kenai Peninsula pro- 

 duces a few, but the main sources of supply are the mainland of 

 southeast Alaska and the Yukon Valley. A small colony of the 

 animals have their homes near Sea Level, at the head of Thorne Arm, 

 Pevillagigedo Island. It is probable that a number of the skins taken 

 in the Norton and Kotzebue sound regions are carried by natives 

 across to Siberia and bartered to the natives there for tame reindeer 

 skins. 



Muskrat. — The greater part of the muskrat skins secured by the 

 natives are used by them in making fur clothing, blankets, or robes, 

 and small articles to be sold to the tourists or resident whites, and 

 in barter with other tribes; hence but few usually are shipped out of 

 the territory. The greater part of these come from western Alaska 

 and the Yukon River, but few being caught in southeast and central 

 Alaska. 



Land otter. — Of all the aquatic fur-bearing animals this is the 

 most widely distributed in the district, and it is much sought after. 

 In southeast iUaska it is becoming quite scarce. Prince of Wales 

 Island, which used to be the principal source of supply, producing 

 but few now. 



Sea otter. — This year but two vessels — the schooner Everett Hays, 

 of Unalaska, and schooner Emma, of Marzovia — fitted out for sea- 

 otter hunting. The former hunted from May 17 to August 18 and 

 secured 19 skins, while the latter was out forty-five days and secured 

 6. Both did much better than in 1907, when their combined catches 

 amounted to 8 skins. The industry is a very precarious and uncer- 

 tain one, owing to the great scarcity of the animals and their increasing 

 wariness and shyness, due to excessive hunting in the past. The 

 weather this season was quite boisterous, and as the sea otter can 

 be hunted only in calm weather, there was a considerable part of 

 the time when no hunting could be carried on. During one period 

 of thirty-eight days only eleven hours were suitable for hunting. 



The schooner Challenge (formerly owned by Mr. Henry Dirks, of 

 Atka Island), which occasionally engaged in sea-otter hunting around 

 the islands of the Aleutian chain to the westward of Unalaska, has 

 been sold and is now engaged in whaling. 



Mr. Charles Rosenberg, who, with his son, patrols a stretch of 

 some 30 miles of beach on the Bering Sea side of Unimak Island in 

 the search for sea otters, secured 3 during the past winter and spring. 

 This is the most cheerless and fatiguing of work, as it must be car- 

 ried on wholly during stormy weather in the cold winter months. 

 The sea otters, in playing about the moving ice, are sometimes 

 caught and crushed to death, and occasionally the carcass is carried 

 by the waves onto the beach. It is for this the searchers watch. 



