ON THE GENUS LTJTRA. 153 



haps more strikingly illustrated by an examination of the skulls; and 

 accords with remarks [ have heard made by Indians of the appear- 

 ances by which they distinguish the one otter from the other. In 

 the L. destructor the bones of the skeleton and the cranium are 

 less massive. The length of the skulls being nearly alike (as in 

 the two specimens taken for exemplification), there is found in the 

 L. destructor a less breadth in the post-orbital process of the frontal ; 

 and the whole of the nasal bones are narrower and weaker. The 

 outer measurement of the cavity of the brain approaches the oval, 

 being convex in all aspects, and it exceeds the half of the total 

 length of the skull from occiput toincisors, by nearly one-fourth of an 

 inch ; whereas the enclosing shell or covering of the brain in the L, 

 Canadensis is almost exactly half the length of the whole skull. It 

 is also nearly flat on the top, presenting no rounded surface 

 except close to the occiput : this feature also prevails, although to 

 a less extent, laterally, and there is a more sudden and decided 

 narrowing of the cavity anteriorly, so that the general outline 

 approximates less to ovaliform, and more to the shape of a trunc- 

 ated cone. 



On the lateral view, with the lower jaws taken off, the skull 

 of the L. destructor exhibits somewhat of an arched appearance ; 

 the molar and facial bones are narrower, and the zygomatic arch 

 rises to about half the height of the skull. In the L. Canadensis, 

 on the same lateral aspect, the planes of the head are straighter, the 

 facial bone deeper and broader, and the zygomatic arch rises 

 only to a paralled line of two-fifths of the depth of the skull. Here 

 I may observe that the smallness of the bones of the face in the L. 

 destructor, coincides with the remark I have heard made by a 

 hunter, that the eyes of the Pinaikiwawkeek were closer to the 

 end of the snout than in the common otter. 



These differences, drawn from measurement and osteological 

 characters, would not have determined me to have reckoned these 

 two otters different species, (although deviations of less note have 

 often served for specific separations,) but the account given by 

 Indians of their Pinaikiwawheek, not only to myself, but to 

 others, tend to impress upon me the conviction that in it we have 

 a different animal from the common otter of America. That the 

 beaver, in spite of his size and strength, at times falls a prey to the 

 otter is certain. In 1823,1 accompanied a few Churchill Crees, 

 in order to be present at the taking of a beaver-lodge. After 

 breaking through about three to four feet of frozen mud with their 



