214 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



with in every locality adapted to its requirements. There 

 are seasons also when, for natural reasons beyond our knowl- 

 edge, it is more markedly numerous in certain sections of 

 the country than is usually the case; but the very extraor- 

 dinary statements made by Bell that there were imported 

 into England 713,115 skins of the American otter in 1830, 

 494,067 in 1831, and 222,493 in 1832, must be enormously 

 exaggerated. As only 23,889 is the total given for 1833, the 

 other figures must surely be grossly incorrect. The Com- 

 pany's aggregate sales for the twenty-five years previous to 

 1878 only amount to 318,140, or an average of about 12,723 

 skins a year. In March, 1888, they sold 11,588 ; in the 

 same month of 1902, 8,675, and 10,273 in 1903. The three 

 best years of said period were 1864 with 15,443, 1866 with 

 18,380, and 1867 with 15,271, and the three lowest, 1853 

 with 8,991 1874 with 9,010, and 1877 with 9,926 skins. 

 In fifteen years (1863-1877) of the aforesaid twenty-five, 

 Mackenzie River District supplied 1,984, and the Athabasca 

 District in twenty years (1858-1877) supplied 4,861 skins 

 toward the aibove grand total. The Mackenzie River contri- 

 bution by Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake, was 427 for 

 the same period. 



By widely separated hunters, this animal is said to mate 

 during the months of March, April, and May. The offspring 

 are from three to five in number. One informant says they 

 are born with their eyes wide open, but all the others assert 

 the contrary. Richardson mentions that the female has one 

 litter of from one to three annually in April ; but Indians in 

 the far north (in New Caledonia, British Columbia, on the 

 Peace and Saskatchewan Rivers) vary in their several 

 accounts. Traces of its " sliding," or travels from one 

 stream to another over the winter snow, have been frequently 

 dbserved, and as a result some — ^not all — of those seen are 

 shot or run down and bludgeoned. I never, however, heard 

 of any instance in keeping with Godman's " otter-sport "" 

 sliding amusement. 



