150 ON THE GENUS LTJTRA. 



be supposed to abound in otters, and sucb is really the case, where 

 civilization with its attendant population has not thinned their 

 numbers, or entirely rooted them out. In flat level districts, 

 where streams are numerous, and well provided with boulders and 

 rolled rocks, localities to which otters appear partial, as affording 

 secluded and safe retreats, an able Indian hunter has been known 

 to kill forty or fifty in the course of a winter and spring. The 

 Lutra Canadensis, which affords this sport, is found across the 

 whole of the continent, and the animal differs little on the west- 

 ern slope from what he is found to be on the eastern side. From 

 recollection I am disposed to think that on the waters of the south 

 branch of the Columbia, and the rivers lying between that and 

 the Pacific, its fur, like the coat of the beaver, is lighter colored 

 than in the colder regions. 



In winter, otters, like seals, are fond of coming upon the ice, 

 but always in the vicinity of open water, into which they can easily 

 plunge on the slightest alarm. In the spring they extend their 

 walks, and disport themselves on the ice, especially after a light 

 fall of snow. On these occasions they frequently fall by the hun- 

 ter's gun. When greater excursions are made, as in crossing 

 through woods from one stream to another, or traversing large 

 lakes to reach open currents, otters seem to glide along, as it were, 

 in their course, and this is done by repeated jerks forward. In 

 deep snow scarcely any traces are left of the feet, the weight of 

 the body following erasing the impression. The appearance 

 afterwards is exactly as if a heavy cylinder, the size of a stove-pipe 

 had been moved along by some invisible power. These long 

 journeys are made principally in the earliest warm days, when 

 otters begin to change their winter haunts, and seek for mates. 

 At this period hunting is followed up with the greatest success. 

 The Indian is constantly on the look-out for these animals, when 

 they leave their holes to pass through points of woods and over 

 frozen lakes, in search of their companions, and of other quarters 

 where fish begin to collect. In deep snow the difficulty of over- 

 taking them is lessened by using the snow-shoe, and when a frozen 

 lake occurs, where the crust is hard or the ice bare, the snow-shoe 

 is dispensed with, and the animal soon overtaken, if there be no 

 open water at hand. The mode of progression of the otter by 

 jerks, or a repeated succession of forward impulses, is occasioned 

 by the shortness of its legs, and the compact firmness of its hind 

 joints, best adapted for swimming. In fact they do swim on the 



