ft Voyage undertaken by the Spanidfds' 



them old men with beards as long and as bushy as thntse of 

 the Turks. 



Their principal occupation, and the chief source of their 

 riches, deserve some details. The natives inhabit only the' 

 coast, and a1)andon the interior of the country to bears y 

 stags, lynxes, wohes, martins, &c. Of the marine ani- 

 mals which abound on their coasts the most valuable are 

 no doubt whales, which supply them witli abundance of 

 food. They have also sea otters, the skins of which are 

 th'.; or.iy money with which ihey traffic. 



The sea otters are amphibious, but live for the most part 

 in the water. They are found at a great distance from the 

 coast, swimming on their backs, and carrying their young 

 on their breast until they are in a state to swim themselves. 

 In this manner they perform long voyages, for the purpose 

 of finding tlie small fish on which they feed. They never 

 abandon their young, even amidst the greatest dangers ; and 

 llicy can be torn from them only with their life. But this 

 rac>; of animals are daily decreasing, since mercantile avarice ■ 

 has caused war to be declared against them along the whole 

 north-west coast, from lat. 36° to lat. 60°. There is not a 

 single point of that immense coast where the Indians are 

 not employed in hunting sea otters. It is with their skins 

 that they have hitherto procured all their articles of luxury — 

 copper, shells, 8cc. The lungs of these animals ai'e so con- 

 structed that they cannot keCp their heads below water for 

 more than two or three iTiinutes ; which gives a great ad- 

 vantage to those who are in pursuit of them : but the velo- 

 city with which they swim often enables them to escape 

 the dexterity of the most expert hunters. 



The quality of their skins varies with age. When only: 

 a few months old they are covered with whitish luiir oi an 

 ■ugly appearance, which soon drops off, and gives place to a 

 shorter and darker kind. When they have attained to their 

 full growth this hair becomes thicker and entirely black, 

 and the skin acquires its full beauty; but it turns gray as 

 the animal grows old. At all seasons the skins of the males 

 arc niorc valuable than those of the females. 



It is seen by this short description, that the otters of the 

 north-east coast of America dificr in many respects from 

 the land otter described by the naturalists of Europe ; and 

 even from the suiicovian, a kind of sea otKir found on the 

 coast of Brazil, and which abounds in particular on the 

 eastern coasts of Kamtschatka. The sea otters of the north- 

 west coast of America, though they live nearly in the same 

 s>tas, seem to bi^. tar superior in regard to their black, thick, 

 ■■ • ' and 



