THE SEA OTTEB. 169 



The oldest and most observing Imnters about Point Grenville (in latitude 47^ 

 20') aver that the "Sea Otter is never seen on shore unless it is wounded." Nev- 

 ertheless, we have accounts of their being found on the Aleutian Islands when 

 the Russians were first engaged in the fur trade, and the animals are still occa- 

 sionally taken, while asleep upon the rocks. We quote the following from Coxe's 

 work on Russian Discoveries between Asia and America, and the Conquest of Siberia. 

 published in 1780: "Of all these furs, the skins of the Sea Otters are the richest 

 and most valuable. These animals resort in great numbers to the Aleutian and Fox 

 islands ; they are called by the Russians Boobrij Morfli, or sea beavers, on account 

 of the resemblance of their fur to that of the common beaver. They are taken 

 four ways : struck with darts as they are sleeping upon their backs in the sea ; 

 followed by boats and hunted down until they are tired ; surprised in caverns, and 

 taken in nets." They are possessed of much sagacity, have great powers of 

 scent, and are exceedingly imbued with curiosity. Their home is nearly as much 

 in the water as that of some species of whales ; and as whalers have their favorite 

 "cruising -grounds," so, likewise, do the Otter -hunters have their favorite hunting- 

 grounds, or points where the objects of pursuit are found in greater numbers than 

 along the general stretch of the coast. About the sea -board of Upper and Lower 

 California, Cerros, San Geronimo, Gruadalupe, San Nicolas, and San Miguel islands, 

 have been regarded as choice places to pursue them ; and farther northward, off Cape 

 Blanco, on the Oregon coast, and Point Grenville and Gray's Harbor, along the 

 coast of Washington Territory. At the present day, considerable numbers are taken 

 by whites and Indians about those northern grounds. Thence, to the northward 

 and westward, come a broken coast and groups of islands, where the animals were, 

 in times past, hunted by the employes of the Hudson's Bay Company and Russian- 

 American Company, and where they are still pursued by the natives inhabiting 

 those rock -bound shores. These interesting mammals are gregarious, and are fre- 

 quently seen in bands numbering from fifty up to hundreds. When in rapid move- 

 ment, they make alternate undulating leaps out of the water, plunging again, as do 

 seals and porpoises. They are frequently seen, too, with the hind flippers extended, 

 as if catching the breeze to sail or drift before it. 



They live on clams, crabs, and various species of Crustacea^ and sometimes 

 small fish. When the Otter descends and brings up any article of food, it instantly 

 resumes its habitual attitude — on the back — to devour it. In sunny days, when 

 looking, it sometimes shades its eyes with one fore paw, much in the same manner 

 as a person does with the hand. The females rarely have more than a single one 

 at a birth — never more than two — which are "brought forth upon the kelp," say 



Marine Mammals. —22. 



