steller's account of the sea otter. 215 



They werefouud there in so great abundance that from the beginning our numbers 

 did not suffice to kill them. They covered the shore in great droves; and as the 

 animal is not migratory, but is born and bred there, they are so far from fearing man 

 that they would come up to our fires and would not be driven away until, after many 

 of them had been slain, they learned to know us and run away. Nevertheless we 

 killed upward of 800 of them, and if the narrow limits of the craft we constructed had 

 permitted we should have killed three times as many. 



As to the beauty of the animal, and particularly of its skin, this sea otter is alone 

 incomparable, without a peer; it surj)asses all other inhabitants of the vast ocean, 

 and holds the first rank in point of beauty and softness of its fur. ■ 



As to its habits, it loves to live both in the water and on the land; but for the 

 sake of sweet peace the otter inhabits in great droves, by preference, the great islands 

 of the ocean. For getting food it seeks, when the tide is out, the shallow, rocky reefs 

 overgrown with seaweed, and there devours crustaceans, mussels, clams, snails, 

 limpets, polyps, cuttlefish. Only when forced by hunger to do so, do they eat sea- 

 weed; but they eat fish, smelt, and a little fish called in Kamchatkan idiom the " f7//,?/," 

 which is washed in by the spring tides in countless numbers. They are also fond of 

 meat. I have seen an otter eating the flesh of another otter which had been skinned 

 and thrown away. It may therefore be concluded that this animal is omnivorous. 



In the winter they lie some upon the ice, some upon the shore. In summer they 

 go up the rivers and penetrate even to the lakes, where they greatly enjoy the fresh 

 water. On warm days they seek the valleys and shady recesses of the mountains and 

 frolic there like monkeys. They surpass all other amphibia in play and frolicsomeness 

 and in fleetness of foot. 



On the land they lie, as dogs do, with the body curled up. As they come out of 

 the sea, like dogs they shake off all the water before they lie down to sleep; then with 

 their i^aws they wash their faces, just as cats do, smooth out their bodies, straighten 

 out their fur, turn their head from one side to the other as they look themselves over, 

 and seem to be greatly pleased with their personal appearance. I have also seen the 

 males play with their genital organs like monkeys. When they are engaged in 

 sleeking their fur they are so intent upon it that they can be killed readily. 



A swift runner can scarcely overtake an otter when it runs, for it runs with many 

 windings, in a fashion to mislead. When it sees its path to the sea intercepted and 

 finds itself exhausted and out of breadth, it puts up its back like a cat, threatens to 

 leap upon its pursuer, and spits like an angry cat; but we, being conscious that its anger 

 was not dangerous, were not frightened off; and when it receives a vigorous blow upon 

 the head it falls upon the ground, covers its eyes with its paws, and keeps them so, no 

 matter how many times it is struck upon the back. But if one hits it on the tail, 

 which is extended out as the animal runs, it turns about and faces the striker in the 

 most absurd fashion. But more frequently it happejis that they fall down at the first 

 blow and pretend that they are dead, and then as soon as they see that we turn our 

 attention to others they suddenly take to flight. From this it would appear that the 

 animal is very cunning. Oftentimes we would drive them into narrow places on pur- 

 pose, without any thought of doing them any harm; we would hold our clubs ready, 

 and they would fall down fawning and looking around in every direction. Then they 

 would slowly slink past us like dogs, and as soon as they saw that they were out of 

 danger they would hurry with mighty leaps to the sea. 



