54 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



colour of the fur is a dark liver brown, with very thinly 

 scattered fine hairs somewhat longer than the rest. In the 

 finest skins the pelt is very dark, and the hairs interspersed 

 more numerous, but black with white tips, and the whole 

 appearance is very beautiful. As the animal grows older 

 the head assumes a yellow colour, some of the old bulls 

 having the head almost white. Judging from the character 

 of the teeth, the food of the sea otter is almost exclusively 

 shell-fish ; the grinders have a singularly massive, almost 

 bulbous form, without trenchant or even angular edges. 

 An examination of the contents of many of their stomachs 

 showed no sign of anything but mollusc diet. That the 

 female seeks the shelter of the kelp beds when about to 

 bring forth her young is very probable, more especially 

 in rough weather, but that this shelter is not necessary we 

 proved in several instances by shooting them with newly- 

 born pups, many miles from either shore or kelp beds, the 

 placenta not having yet been voided. The cry of the 

 adult, only heard by us at night, is exactly like the mew of 

 the domestic cat. Sometimes "schools" of from one to 

 two hundred were met with, but, as a rule, except in the 

 kelp beds, where a few might be seen together, we found 

 them singly or in pairs. 



The following account of the sea otter, and the method 

 of hunting it is taken from Mr. H. W. Elliott's report on 

 the condition of affairs in the territory of Alaska in 1835. 



" The sea otter, like the fur seal, is another illustration 

 of an animal long known and highly prized in the 

 commercial world, yet respecting the life and habits of 

 which nothing definite has been ascertained or published. 

 The reason for this is obvious, for, save the natives who 

 hunt them, no one properly qualified to write has ever had 

 an opportunity of observing the enhydra, so as to study it 

 in a state of nature, inasmuch as, of all the shy, sensitive 

 beasts upon the capture of which man sets any value 

 whatever, this creature is most keenly on the alert and 

 difficult to obtain ; and also, like the fur seal, it possesses 



