232 



Till-: HAIJ(.I.R A.\0 WlCASi:!. I'AMIIA', 



four incisors in the lower jaw, while in the 

 upper jaw there is the normal number, six. 

 I'his state of matters is found ev(-n in the 

 milk clentiti(jn. 'Ihd canines are large, Ijut 

 not so massive as in the c(jmmon otter. \ he 



rest of the dentition has the same formula a.s 

 that of the polecat: three premolars above 

 and below, one true molar above, two below. 

 'J'here would thus be in all 34 teeth if the 

 loss of a pair of incisors in the lower jaw did 



J^r^^ 



I-"it^. 124. — '\\\r^^c/.i-iMi;x <lii/liydri^ lihirii/a). 11:11(0231 



not brintj the number down to 32. Ijut, as 



regards their form, these teeth arc; very dif- 

 ferent from those of the martens; for the 

 cheek-teeth, carnassials as well as molars, are 

 all tubercled, with broad. Hat crowns, and 

 have so completely lost the character of carni- 

 vorous teeth, that one who found them sejja- 

 rately would have no hesitation in ascribing 

 them to an ojnnivorous animal. 



It is easy to recognize in this structure the. 

 result of a special kind of diet. 1 he sea- 

 otter feeds, in fact, almost exclusively on 

 crustaceans (crabs, tvc) and mussels, whose 

 hard shells it crushes io pieces. Cjnly ex- 

 ceptionally does it consume fish when they 

 fall in its way, never hunting after them. 



Since the sea-otter inhabits the parts of 

 the yArctic regions bordering on the Pacific 



(Jcean, it spends almost the whfde of its life 

 amid siKjvv, ice, and ice-cold water. 'I o this 

 coldness ol its habitat it no doubt owes its 

 wonderfully beautiful brown, almost black fur, 

 with a silver-gra) shimmer in old animals. 

 It is not so much a fur as a warm, flexible, 

 highly linished natural \'el\et, the down of 

 which is soft as eider-down, while the short 

 and thick bristly hairs keep out the water 

 com|jlet(dy. Accr)rding to my own jjrivate 

 taste, the fur (jf the sea-otter is the finest in 

 the animal world, and far excels that of the 

 sabk^ In commerce, howe\'er, the skin of 

 the sable is more costl)' than that of the sea- 

 otter. 



Towards the end of last century the sea- 

 otter was still pretty abundant on the coa.sts 

 of the islands in Behring's .Strait and those 



