HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 55 



to us the enhancing value and charm of being principally 

 confined in its geographical distribution to our own shores 

 of the North-West. A truthful account of the strange, 

 vigilant life of the sea otter and the hardships and perils of 

 its human hunters would surpass, if we could give it all, the 

 most attractive work of fiction. 



"There is no sexual dissimilarity in colour or size, and 

 both male and female, and both manifest the same intense 

 shyness and aversion to man, coupled with the greatest 

 solicitude for their young, which they bring into existence 

 at all seasons of the year, for the natives get young pups 

 every month. As they have never caught the mothers 

 bringing forth their offspring on the rocks, they are 

 disposed to believe the birth takes place on kelp beds in 

 pleasant or not over-rough weather. The female has a 

 single " pup," born about fifteen inches in length and 

 provided during the first month or two with a coat of 

 coarse, brownish, grizzled fur, head and neck grizzled, 

 greyish, rufous, white, with the roots of the hair growing 

 darker towards the skin. The feet, as in the adult, are 

 very short, webbed, with nails like a dog, forepaws 

 exceedingly feeble and small, all covered with a short, 

 fine, dark, bister-brown hair or fur. From this poor 

 condition of fur, they improve as they grow older, 

 shading finer, darker, thicker, and softer, and by the 

 time they are two years of age they are "prime," though 

 the animal is not full grown until its fourth or fifth year. 

 The white nose and moustache of the pup are not changed 

 in the adult. The whiskers are white, short, and fine. 

 The female has two teats resembling those of a cat, 

 placed between the hind limbs on the abdomen, and no 

 signs of more ; the pup sucks a year at least, longer if 

 its mother has no other ; the mother lies upon her back 

 in the water or upon the rocks, as the case may be, 

 and when she is surprised she protects her young by 

 clasping it in her fore paws and turning her back to 

 the danger. 



