182 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



and by Loomis eight years later. The upper tooth row (front 

 of middle incisor to back of molar) in the type specimen meas- 

 ured 30 mm., and in Loomis 's type 29.5, which is larger even 

 than in the large Alaskan mink. Rostra are infrequent among 

 the shell-heap fragments obtained, but jaws are fairly common 

 in kitchen middens along the coast and islands of Penobscot 

 Bay and Mount Desert Island. Two sizes, evidently repre- 

 senting males and females, occur. 



No other type of mink is found in these Indian kitchen 

 middens, and since there is an absence of European artifacts 

 it is believed that these shell-heaps date from previous to, or 

 perhaps up to, the time of European occupation. Remains are 

 at present known from such sites as far as Casco Bay in the 

 south, and northeastward to Mount Desert and Frenchmans 

 Bay, and Roques Island, Washington County, Maine. Soon 

 after the description of these bony fragments, the late Manly 

 Hardy published a note (Forest and Stream, vol. 61, p. 125, 

 1903) recalling that his father, himself, and other fur-buyers 

 had in former years "recognized as a distinct form a very large 

 mink, skins of which were received from islands and coast of 

 Maine until about 1860. By reason of their large size they com- 

 manded a higher price than did the skins of other minks . . . 

 To this animal the name of 'sea mink' was given by the fur buy- 

 ers" of Maine. "According to Hardy, the animal was large, 

 very fat, and possessed of an odor entirely different from that 

 of" the smaller inland animal (see Norton, 1930). Furthermore, 

 the fur was said to be coarser and of a more reddish color than 

 that of the latter. There seems no reason to doubt that the 

 sea mink is the one that inhabited the Maine coasts in Indian 

 days and persisted up to the latter part of the last century. 

 With a limited range and on account of eager pursuit by the 

 trappers, it probably became extinct about the sixties or seven- 

 ties. Norton (1930) tells of a very large mink skin handled 

 about 1880 by fur buyers at Jonesport, Maine, which without 

 the tail measured over 26 inches long and may have been one 

 of the last of this race. It was taken on one of the islands in the 

 township of Jonesport. Norton mentions also a large mounted 

 specimen of a mink taken at Campobello Island, New Bruns- 

 wick, about 1894, and then in the collection of Clarence H. 

 Clark, of Lubec, Maine. He speaks of its light color (possibly 

 a result of fading) and regards it as "probably of this species. " 

 No measurements are given. 



