THfi SEA OTTER BEAVER. 24S 



Indeed the fur of all this tribe of animals is more or 

 less raluable, so that although nature has assigned 

 their abode in the solitary recesses of deep rivers and 

 extensive morasses, they are still subservient to the 

 use of man. In none of the species, however, is thi* 

 utility so conspicuous as in that of 



THE SEA OTTER. 



This is an animal of extraordinary importance in 

 the commercial system of two of the greatest and 

 most powerful empires on the face of the globe ; for 

 their skins are sold by the Russians to the Chinese, 

 at the rate of eighty, and even sometimes a hundred 

 rubles a piece. In return for this particular article 

 of export the Russians receive some of the most va- 

 luable cemmodities of China, and thus the skins of 

 these animals, together with a variety of others, 

 which furnish to the fur trade an inexhaustible sup- 

 ply, constitute, as already observed,, a lucrative 

 branch of commerce. 



The fur of the sea otter is long and thick set, ge- 

 nerally of a beautiful glossy black, but in some of a fine 

 shining silver colour. Its legs are thick and short, and 

 the toes joined by a web. Its length from nose to 

 tail is about four feet or something more. The largest 

 of these animals weigh eighty pounds. 



The flesh of the young otter is reckoned very de- 

 licate, and is scarcely distinguishable from lamb. 



Kamtschatka, and the opposite coasts of America, 

 with the numerous islands which lie between the two 

 continents, are the countries where the sea otter prin- 

 cipally abounds, and which, with the rest of the furry 

 tribes, render these barren and remote regions in the 

 eastern extremity of Asia, of great importance to the 

 Russian Empire. 



THE BEAVER 



is an animal in which the power of instinct appears 

 in an eminent degree, and indeed exhibits itself in a 

 form of which few traces can be found in the brute 

 creation. Of all quadrupeds it is the most industri- 

 ous; and its labours seem to be the result of a social 

 compact formed for mutual preservation, support, arid 



M 2 



