Sea Otter 
get the greatest fun from sliding; where the bank is sufficiently 
steep and slanting they make a roundabout path leading up 
to the top of the bank and from there they slide down the 
slippery surface into the water one after another like boys slid- 
ing down hill on the snow. 
There is usually a playing ground at the head of each of 
their slides, where the turf is dug up and trampled and broken 
sticks scattered about. 
In places where the water remains open in the winter the 
otters take advantage of the snow crust formed by the water 
dripping from their fur and freezing on the snow, and when 
travelling overland in snowy weather they always slide down 
any declivity they come to. 
In the Northern States and Canada they pass most of the 
winter under the ice. 
Sea Otter 
Latax lutris (Linnzus) 
Length. 4 feet. 
Description. Thick set, muzzle well beset with bristles presenting 
much the same appearance as that of the fur seal; tail one- 
quarter the length of the body. Fore feet rather small, hind 
feet very large, fully webbed between the toes, teeth curiously 
blunt and rounded. Body covered with a dense under fur and 
a longer coarser outer coat as in the fur seal. Colour, black 
with whitish tips, head and neck grayish or yellowish white. 
Range. Shores of north Pacific, formerly south to northwestern 
United States, becoming very scarce everywhere. 
This curious and interesting animal of our northwest coast 
has been reduced to danger of extinction by the fur hunters, 
who find in its skin the most valuable pelt furnished by any 
North American quadruped. 
H. W. Elliott says of it: ‘‘ There is no sexual dissimilarity 
in colour or size, and both parents manifest the same intense 
shyness and aversion to man, coupled with the greatest solici- 
tude for their young, which they bring into existence at all sea- 
sons of the year. As the natives have never caught the mothers 
bringing forth their offspring on the rocks, they are disposed to 
believe that their 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 of 
2323 
