130 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



be so shallow that they freeze to the bottom, and if so, this makes them unsuitable for 

 muskrats. Most of the ponds on St. Paul Island were surv'eyed by the late Dr. Hahn 

 to ascertain their fitness for muskrats. The majority of those examined were found to 

 be too shallow. The work was never completed, and two ponds which apparently are 

 the best adapted to muskrats of any on the islands were not critically examined. One 

 of these, Antone Lake, appears from a somewhat cursory examination to be suitable 

 for the animals. Webster Lake is also a possibility, but is less likely to be favorable 

 than the other. 



There is little doubt that the introduction of muskrats on St. Paul Island can be 

 successfully accomplished, but its advisability is questioned. Muskrats seek their food 

 in winter entirely beneath the ice, and, however abundant, could not be caught at that 

 season by the foxes, while their habits at other times of the year are such as to render 

 them almost immune from the attacks of any land animal. The native boys, however, 

 could increase their earnings by trapping the animals, but it is somewhat doubtful if 

 the number which the limited amount of suitable ground would support would justify the 

 undertaking on this basis. At any rate, a more careful examination of the deeper lakes 

 by some one familiar with the habits of muskrats should precede any further attempt 

 to establish the animals. 



Sea otter. — ^This valuable animal played an important part in the discovery by white 

 men of all the region bordering Bering Sea on the south and east. After its practical 

 extennination from Kamchatka, the Russians in the middle of the eighteenth century 

 gradually uncovered and devastated its haunts on the Aleutians and the neighboring 

 groups until its growing scarcity in the more accessible regions led to its pursuit and 

 virtual extinction in the uttermost parts of its range. At the time of the discovery of 

 the Pribilof Islands, in 1786, sea otters were very abundant there, and as many as 5,000 

 are said to have been taken from St. Paul during the first year of its occupancy. They 

 were abundant also on St. George. They rapidly declined in numbers, and according to 

 Veniaminoff had become scarce by i8i i and extinct within the next 30 years. Although 

 the species apparently was practically exterminated on the Pribilofs about this time, 

 small numbers remained and single individuals have been reported in a few instances 

 even during recent years. According to the St. Paul log, a sea otter, the first observed 

 for several years, was reported by fishermen on September 23, 1889. One was found 

 dead at Rocky Point, St. Paul, in June, 1896, and in December of the same year a live 

 one was reported close to shore in Southwest Bay. Skulls or other remains, probably of 

 animals long dead, are still occasionally found. 



For some time after the commercial extermination of the sea otter on the Pribilofs 

 many of the animals retained a foothold among the Aleutian Islands and in other parts 

 of the North Pacific, but the incessant persecution to which the species was subjected 

 gradually reduced it to the verge of total extinction. Now the pitiful remnant left is 

 protected for a term of years in the hope that the species, which ranks among the most 

 valuable of all fur bearers, may gradually repopulate its former haunts. 



It has been suggested that sea otters be restored to the Pribilofs. If the difi&culty 

 of securing a stock for this purpose could be overcome, the animals might be induced 

 by protection to remain on or about the islands, but the project is a doubtful one. Otter 

 Island, so named from the former abundance of the sea otter on its shores, seems to be 

 eminently adapted to the peculiar needs of this animal, is uninhabited, and yet is close 



