u6 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



or tossing up seaweed in play, or going ashore among the rocks to 

 arrange its hair like a cat. It had to come above water to breathe 

 and when the weather was stormy, it had to come ashore to sleep. 

 Its favorite sleeping bed was the kelp, where it could bury its head 

 and think itself hidden. 



Storms and gales drove it ashore ; so storms and gales, day 

 or night, were the seasons for hunting. It was the wildest page 

 in the history of the American fur trade and I have told it else- 

 where in "Vikings of the Pacific" and "Conquest of the Great 

 North West." Some 5000 pelts a year were an easy catch for each 

 of several of the Aleutian Islands. Multiply that by $100 to #200 

 a pelt, and you will see what profit there was for partners, what 

 incentive there was to bludgeon the Aleut hunter into a slave with- 

 out pay for the Russian, and what motive there was in turn for the 

 Aleut to turn and slit his criminal master's throat. 



To-day, Sea Otter rookeries are more jealously guarded than 

 diamonds. Only there are no more Sea Otter on the rookeries of 

 the Aleutian and Bering Sea Islands. Only an occasional Sea 

 Otter carcass is washed up dead, or an Indian comes in with an odd 

 pelt, which he does not recognize. To-day, the whole world sells, 

 perhaps 3, perhaps 20. Ten years ago, the catch was 200; and Sea 

 Otter might have been saved. To-day, it is almost too late. Unless 

 Sea Otter rookeries are found in Southern Polar Seas of which the 

 world does not know, Sea Otter are lost forever to the fur world 

 and to natural history. 



When malcontents denounce the pelagic sealing award, they 

 should think of the Sea Otter. Had the Sea Otter been protected 

 by international treaty at the time the Seal was, the Sea Otter might 

 have been saved and might have come back. 



What was the catch of the Sea Otter in its best days ? Port- 

 lock and Dixon's cargo sold for $50,000. In 1785, 5000 sea otter 

 were sold in China for $160,000. Two hundred thousand sea otter 

 were taken by the Russians in 50 years. In 1875, American com- 

 panies newly come on the hunting ground were taking 3000 a year. 



