MAMMALS. 



251 



a i^owerful young man he tried to swing the otter over his head and kill it by dashing it against 

 the ground, but when in mid-air it turned suddenly and caught him by the throat, with the result as 

 described. 



The districts where the " blackflsh " are abundant on the Lower Yukon and Kuskoquim form 

 the center of abundance of the otter in Alaska. There they frequent brackish pools and tide 

 creeks, like the mink. Petroff states that between 1870 and 1880 there were 18,964 of land-otter 

 skins shipped from Alaska, but this falls far short of the real number. 



Enhydeis lutris (Linn.). Sea Otter (Esk. A-mi'-'kuh). 



List of specimens. 



Basi-cranial lengtli 



Zygomatic widtli 



Widtli of interorbital constriction 



liongthof "palate" 



Anterior margin of canine to posterior margin last molar 



Height anterior nares 



Width, anterior narea 



Biogra^pJiical notes. — In 1760-'65, when Bering and his party first explored the Aleutian Islands, 

 they found the Sea Otters so numerous that the Aleuts wore long mantles made of their skins, and 

 a scrap of old iron was enough to secure the finest skin. In 1840 Veniaminov wrote that the Sea 

 Otters in these islands " are distinguished above everything on account of their great value and 

 small numbers. * * * There was a time when they were killed in thousands, now only by 

 hundreds. There are plenty of places where befoi'e there were great numbers of Sea Otters ; now 

 not one is to be seen or found. The reason for this is most evident; every year hunted without 

 rest they have fled to places unknown and without danger." 



When the Pur Seal Islands were discovered these animals were very numerous, and two sailors 

 killed five thousand there the first year. The next year less than one thousand were killed, and from 

 the end of the next six years to the present day the Sea Otter has been unknown there. Prom the 

 Aleutian Islands south to Oregon the Eussians found these otters so numerous that they were ob- 

 tained in numbers running from two to three thousand skins per year in many places, and in 1804 

 Baranov sailed from Alaska with a single cargo of fifteen thousand skins. At that time the dis- 

 trict about TJnalaska Island furnished about one thousand skins annually. In 1826 only fifteen 

 skins were taken there; in 1835 about one hundred were taken, and at the time of the transfer of 

 the Territory in 1867 the entire Aleutian chain, with the adjacent coast south, only yielded to the 

 Eussians from six to eight hundred skins annually. In 1873 the Americans secured nearly four 

 thousand skins from this same region, and in 1880 and 1881 from six to eight thousand skins are 

 estimated to have been secured on the same ground. This great increase in the catch during the 

 later years is entirely due to the greater vigor with which the animal has been hunted, and the 

 introduction of fine long-range rifles. . Good rifles now replace, to a great extent, the primitive 

 spears. 



There is little doubt that iu the course of a few years, under the present regulations and mode 

 of hunting, this valuable animal will be exterminated, and in place of affording the Aleuts a live- 

 lihood will leave them dependent upon the Government. 



