68 FLESH-EATERS 



Otters to select a steep and slippery river bank, and slide 

 down it repeatedly, as small boys slide down hill on sleds, 

 except that each slide of the Otter always ended in a plunge 

 into the water. 



The Otter of North America is still found occasionally in 

 Florida and the Carolinas, the Canadian provinces, in a few 

 localities in the Rocky Mountain region, and from British 

 Columbia to central Alaska. Outside of Alaska and the far 

 North its fur is taken so rarely that it has ceased to be re- 

 garded as an article of commerce. For all that, however, the 

 annual output of Otter skins for all North America is said 

 to be about 30,000. The value of the animal alive for ex- 

 hibition purposes is from $10 to $40. The length of a large 

 northern Otter, head and body, is 27 inches and tail 16 inches. 



The unplucked fur of the Otter is the most durable of all 

 furs, and it is ranked at 100 in the scale of durability. The 

 Otters of land and sea are alike in this respect. 



The Otter builds no house, but lives in a bank burrow, 

 usually under the spreading roots of some large tree growing 

 near the water. The young are usually two in number. 



The Sea Otter,^ one of the most valuable of all fur- 

 bearing animals, is literally a child of the ocean surges and 

 the surf-beaten rocks of the rugged north Pacific coast. It 

 is born at sea, on a bed of kelp, and literally "rocked in the 

 cradle of the deep." It was formerly found from California 

 to the Aleutian Islands, but is now very rare except in cer- 

 tain parts of Alaska. There the pursuit of the animal is 

 strictly limited by law to the natives, to whom it is vitally 



' La'tax lu'tris. 



