No. 377-| REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 357 
their protection are now contemplated, not only in behalf of the sea 
otter, but more especially in behalf of the natives of the Aleutian 
Islands, who are almost entirely dependent upon the sea otter for 
the necessaries of life. The present status of this animal has hence 
been made the subject of a report’ by Capt. C. L. Hooper, of the 
Revenue Cutter Service, to the U. S. Treasury Department, from 
which it appears that none now exist on the islands or shores of the 
mainland north of the Alaskan Peninsula ; at least the animal is not 
now hunted outside of the Aleutian Islands. Captain Hooper states 
that no reliable record of the sea-otter catch is obtainable prior to 
1873. He presents, however, a tabular statement of the approxi- 
mate number taken annually at the different islands by the natives 
from 1873-96 inclusive. The total catch for this period of twenty- 
four years is about 58,000, the largest number, 4152, being taken 
in 1885, and the smallest, 598, in 1894. This does not, however, 
include the considerable number killed by white hunters which yearly 
visit the otter banks. It is, however, a trifling number in compari- 
son with the annual catches of a century ago. 
Under this constant persecution the sea otter has not only greatly 
decreased in numbers, but has notably changed its habits. To quote 
from Captain Hooper’s Report : “ Being constantly harassed, clubbed, 
and shot on shore, caught in nets by white men, their hauling 
grounds made uninhabitable by the camp fires of the hunters and 
defiled by fisheries and the decaying bodies of their slaughtered 
companions, the sea otter of the Aleutian Islands has not only 
decreased in numbers, but has actually changed its habits. It no 
longer comes out upon the land to feed, rest, or give birth to its 
young. A floating raft of kelp serves as its only resting place and 
banks of thirty fathoms of water are its feeding grounds. Even there 
it is hunted and harassed by hunting schooners from March until 
August. Having been driven from the shore, it is being exterminated 
on the sea by a fleet of hunting schooners, and the native hunters of 
the Aleutian Islands are being deprived of their chief means of sub- 
sistence. In addition to its change of habits and decrease in num- 
bers, the range of the otter is very much reduced.” 
1 A Report on the Sea-Otter Banks of Alaska, Range and Habits of the Sea 
Otter. — Its Decrease under American Rule, and some of the Causes. — Importance 
of the Sea Otter to the Natives ie Alaska inhabiting the Aleutian Islands. — Pro. 
posed Regulations for 1898. By C. L. Hooper, Captain R. C. S., Commanding 
Bering Sea Patrol Fleet, 1897. kiaia Government Printing Office, 1897. 
Treas. Depart. Doc. No. 1977. 8vwo, 1-35 pp-» with map. 
