222 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
shot on shore, its landing-grounds rendered uninhabitable by 
human presence as well as by the refuse of the fisheries 
and the decaying bodies of its own companions—the sea- 
otter, as might have been expected, has totally changed 
its original mode of life. Instead of hauling out on shore 
to feed, repose, and breed, it now sleeps and breeds on 
floating masses of seaweed, while its feeding-grounds are 
banks in some thirty fathoms of water. But even in these 
situations the unfortunate animals enjoy no peace, but are 
hunted and harassed by fleets of schooners from March 
till August. From many of its old habitats it has more 
or less completely disappeared, all the grounds to the 
west of Unimak Pass being practically deserted. On a 
few of the banks, indeed, a stray otter may now and then 
be captured at long intervals, but on others not a single 
head has been observed for the last ten years or so. At 
the present day most of the otters captured in the Aleutians 
are taken on the banks lying to the south-west of Kadiak. 
These banks are bounded on the north-west by the Alaska 
peninsula, on the north-east by Kadiak Island, to the 
south-east by the Trinity Islands, and to the south-west 
by the Semedi Islands. 
Between the years 1873 and 1883 inclusive, the approxi- 
mate number of sea-otters annually captured by the 
natives of the Aleutian Islands varied between 2,500 and 
4,000. The latter number was exceeded in 1885, but from 
that year there has been a rapid decrease, as is shown by 
the following figures—viz., 1886, 3,604; 1887, 3,095; 1888, 
2,496 ; 1889, 1,795 ; 1890, 1,633; 1891, 1,436; 1892, 820; 
1893, 686 ; 1894, 598; 1895, 887; 1896, 724. 
This very heavy numerical decrease has been accom- 
panied by an equally marked rise in the price of the 
skins. In 1888 the average price per skin was £21 10s., 
