222 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



shot on shore, its landing-grounds rendered uninhabitable by 

 human presence as well as by the refuse of the fisheries 

 and the decaying bodies of its own companions — the sea- 

 otter, as might have been expected, has totally changed 

 its original mode of life. Instead of hauling out on shore 

 to feed, repose, and breed, it now sleeps and breeds on 

 floating masses of seaweed, while its feeding-grounds are 

 banks in some thirty fathoms of water. But even in these 

 situations the unfortunate animals enjoy no peace, but are 

 hunted and harassed by fleets of schooners from March 

 till August. From many of its old habitats it has more 

 or less completely disappeared, all the grounds to the 

 west of Unimak Pass being practically deserted. On a 

 few of the banks, indeed, a stray otter may now and then 

 be captured at long intervals, but on others not a single 

 head has been observed for the last ten years or so. At 

 the present day most of the otters captured in the Aleutians 

 are taken on the banks lying to the south-west of Kadiak. 

 These banks are bounded on the north-west by the Alaska 

 peninsula, on the north-east by Kadiak Island, to the 

 south-east by the Trinity Islands, and to the south-west 

 by the Semedi Islands. 



Between the years 1873 and 1883 inclusive, the approxi- 

 mate number of sea-otters annually captured by the 

 natives of the Aleutian Islands varied between 2,500 and 

 4,000. The latter number was exceeded in 1885, but from 

 that year there has been a rapid decrease, as is shown by 

 the following figures — viz., 1886,3,604; 1887,3,095; 1888, 

 2,496; 1889, 1,795; 1890, 1,633; 1891, 1,436; 1892, 820; 

 1893, 686; 1894, 598; 1895, 887; 1896, 724. 



This very heavy numerical decrease has been accom- 

 panied by an equally marked rise in the price of the 

 skins. In 1888 the average price per skin was £21 10s., 



