HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 53 



gave a sufficiently accurate account of it to be quoted and 

 consulted to the present day. 



Dr. Elliott Coues, in his admirable monograph on the 

 American Mustelidae, gives no less than fourteen Latin 

 designations to the sea otter, as applied by as many 

 different naturalists, some classing it with the seals, others 

 with beavers and river otters. That these mistakes should 

 have arisen is scarcely a matter for surprise, as few, save 

 the native or American hunter, ever had the opportunity of 

 seeing them alive, much less of studying their habits and 

 scientific distinctions. The similarity of the sea otter to 

 the seal is entirely confined to the fact that both possess 

 flipper-like hind feet. There all physical likeness ceases, 

 though they certainly approximate more to the seals than 

 to the otters in being purely marine in their life and habits. 

 Instead of the sudden tapering of the tail, as in the seal, 

 the sea otter has an almost cylindrical body, abrupt behind, 

 tapering forwards to a long, flat-topped head ; in repose 

 the neck appears short, but when alarmed it is capable of 

 being stretched above the water to such an extent as to 

 give the animal a rather graceful appearance ; when lying 

 dead upon the deck the general outline is very much like 

 that of a gigantic mole ; the limbs are short, the tail, never 

 above a foot in length, is somewhat flattened and of even 

 breadth to within an inch and a half from the end, when it 

 abruptly tapers. There is a marked disparity between the 

 fore and the hind limbs both in size and shape, the former 

 being very short, terminating in paws like those of a cat, 

 while the latter are broader and shorter than those of the 

 seal, having elongated digits webbed by membranes stretch- 

 from tip to tip of all toes and furnished with short, stout, 

 arched claws. Both digits and membranes are covered on 

 either side with stiff, coarse hair. The eyes, of moderate 

 size, are placed high up in the head, the ears low down, sharp- 

 pointed, short, and hidden in the fur. The skin is remark- 

 ably loose and "rolling," and when removed is seldom less 

 than twelve inches longer than the animal itself. The 



