SEA OTTER AND LAND OTTER 115 



the swampy,weedy salt marshes of surf and rock alive with a medium- 

 sized animal, for which the Russians knew no other name but "sea 

 beaver." Mad with hunger, the desperate sailors fell on the kelp 

 beds, clubbing right and left. The Sea Otter did not know enough 

 to be afraid and fell easy victims. Seizing the raw flesh for food, 

 the castaways used the pelts for clothing, blankets, rugs in their 

 sand caves. Like "Caesar's brains," Sea Otter was now used to 

 chink the cracks of huts and keep out the cold. When in spring 

 the sailors rigged up a crazy skiff to return to Asiatic shores, they 

 carried with them a thousand peltries ; and to their amazement 

 they found that Chinese merchants would pay for these skins what 

 in modern money would be $150 to $200. 



Henceforth, Sea Otter hunting became a gold stampede ; and to 

 it rushed such riff-raff as always follow the lode-star of quick for- 

 tune by a gamble. All the capital needed was a boat and food for 

 six-months hunt ; and this, merchants of Russia were easily per- 

 suaded to advance on shares to any leader who would take out a 

 company of hunters. Young Russian noblemen saw a chance to 

 make easy money as the young French nobility had with beaver. 

 They did not go out with hunters, themselves, but they obtained 

 royal concessions or licenses on shares for merchants, who would 

 outfit companies of riff-raff criminals and adventurers for the hunt. 



When Captain Cook's crews came to the Pacific thirty years 

 later, they, too, obtained skins in barter for beads and baubles, 

 which they afterwards sold in China for a fortune. Just as the lit- 

 tle beaver led exploration up the St. Lawrence to the Pacific and 

 the Arctic, so now the Sable and the Sea Otter lured the adventurers 

 of Europe eastward across Siberia and round the world in explo- 

 ration of the Pacific Coast of America. 



Of the fur, itself, the great beauty consisted in its ebony shimmer, 

 interspersed with silver. Six feet the pelt measured from tip to 

 tail. The face was beaver shaped. The teeth were like a cat. 

 The feet were webbed. Only one pup was born at a time, and 

 it was "cradled in the deep, sleeping on its back in the water," 



