126 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
times five feet long from the point of the nose to the tip of 
the tail. When in the water, its hair is at times beautifully 
iridescent. 
The sea-otter (Enhydra marina) is larger than the Califor- 
nian otter, and is also carnivorous. It generally makes its 
home near islands, and roams about in the water within ten 
or twenty miles of land. The sea-otter was at one time very 
abundant along the coast of California, and it was one of the 
attractions which induced the Russian Fur Company to estab- 
lish a post at Fort Ross, in latitude 38° 30’, where a number 
of Aleutian Indians were employed from 1812 to 1840 in the 
otter fishery. They would start out in their little single ca- 
noes, made water-proof with a covering of fish-bladders, so 
that there was no danger of their sinking if the sea should 
sweep over them, and thus they would go out fifty miles to 
sea and travel up and down the coast, usually coming home 
well laden with sea-otter skins worth sixty or eighty dollars 
each. The sea-otter is still abundant on the southern coast, 
and there are men in Santa Barbara county who make it a 
business to hunt them. 
“The otter,” says Mr. W. A. Wallace, “is very harmless, 
and always seeks to escape from human observation. When 
attacked they make no resistance, but endeavor to escape by 
sinking in the sea, If closely pursued and there is no escape, 
they scold and grin like an angry cat. If they escape the ene- 
my, as soon as they are safe they turn and deride him with 
various diverting tricks, such as standing on end in the water, 
jumping over the waves, holding the paws over the eyes, as 
if to shade them from the sun while looking at the enemy— 
then lying flat upon the back and stroking the belly. In their 
escape they carry their sucklings in their mouths, and drive 
before them those not fully grown. They were formerly taken, 
by the Russians and Indians, by means of nets, clubs, and 
spears. The young are said to be delicate eating, the flesh 
resembling lamb. The flesh of the old ones is insipid and 
tough. % 
