THE SEA OTTER FISHERY. 483 



"This, iu short, was the history of their daily experiences for a week, at the eiid of which 

 time they first heard the cry of the seals, and entered upon the work of slaughter."* 



6. THE SEA-OTTER FISHERY. 



By HKNRY W. ELLIOTT, t 



1. THE DISCOVERY AND THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE SEA- 

 OTTER. 



The sea-otter (Enhydra marina), which yields to the votaries of fashion and lovers of lux- 

 uriant trappings the richest, the finest, and the costliest fur known to man, is, like the fur-seal, 

 ano.ther illustration of an animal long cognizant to and highly prized in the commercial world, yet 

 respecting the habits and life of which nothing definite has been ascertained or published; indeed, 

 for that matter, it is exceedingly difficult to trace the figures representing the large volume of 

 fur business transacted under this head.f 



Perhaps the primary reason for this deficiency of knowledge in respect to the biology of the 

 sea-otter is due to the fact that until quite recently none save the natives hunted them, and no 

 naturalist or observer of our own race, who has been qualified, ever enjoyed an opportunity of 

 seeing the "kalan" so as to study it in a state of nature; for, of all the shy, wary, sensitive beasts, 

 upon the capture of which man sets any value, this creature is the most keenly on the alert and 

 difficult to obtain. 



LIMITED GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Another salient point touching the restricted dis- 

 tribution of this solitary marine inhabitant : It is a little strange that its life seems to be princi- 

 pally confined to our own northwest coast and Bering Sea, though, as we shall point out, it has 

 quite an extensive distribution over the Kurile Islands and the Kamtchatkan coast. A truthful 

 account of the strange, vigilant life of the sea-otter and of the hardships and perils encountered 

 by its human hunters would surpass in novelty and interest the most attractive work of fiction. 

 I mention this with much emphasis, because throughout the following narrative many instances 



* ALLEN : op. oil. 



1 1 wish, however, to have it plainly understood that what I here present as my contributiton to the life-history 

 of the sea-otter is due, chiefly, to diligent inquiry and examination of sea-otter hunters, at Oonalashka, and their 

 friends. In all my knocking about over Alaskan waters and down the northwest coast, I have never seen a live 

 Enhydra; the villainous weather which prevailed during September, 1874, prevented me from visiting Saanak in the 

 "Reliance," where the main sea-otter camp of all this region is located, and which is composed principally of Oona- 

 lashka and Borka Aleuts. ThTis, I am able to oft'er very little of real biography; but, scanty as is my material, still 

 it seems to cover a great deal more ground than hitherto cultivated in this direction, hence I submit it. 



t It is a very curious fact that Steller, who knew well what a sea-otter was, should have ever described one as a new 

 and strange animal to him a " sea ape." It was finally termed so by certain students of Swainson, who declared that 

 such an animal must be in existence iu order that his " circular series of types in the Quadruraana should be completed." 

 When Steller, in August, 1740, was with Bering on the "St. Peter," in sight of the coast near Mount St. Elias, he saw 

 a very singular animal which he called a sea ape. "It was five feet long; tne head was like a dog's; the ears were 

 sharp and erect, and the eyes large; there was on both lips a sort of a beard * * *. It was full of frolic and 

 played a thousand monkey tricks; sometimes swimming on one side and sometimes the other of the ship, looking at 

 it with great amazement. It would come so near the ship that it could be touched with a pole; but if any one stirred 

 it would immediately retire. It often raised one-third of its body out of the water and stood erect for a considerable 

 time; it then suddenly darted under the ship and reappeared in the same attitude on the other side; it would repeat 

 this maneuver thirty times together. It would frequently bring up a sea-plant not unlike a bottle gourd, which it 

 would toss about and catch again in its mouth, playing numberless fantastic tricks with it." [Pennant's trans. Hist. 

 Brit. Quad., vol. ii, p. 301.] 



Father Shaiesuekov, at Oonalashka, in 1874, gave me an account of the gambols of the Enhydra that reads sub- 

 stantially as the above comes from Steller, who saw a sea-otter sure enough. 



