ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
33 
bank is clayey, and having rendered it smooth by removing 
sticks, stones, &c., they start from the top, one after another, 
with a velocity that brings them plump into the water. 
Major Long thus jocosely alludes to them : “ These slides 
are sometimes borrowed by boys bathing ; who, however, not 
recollecting that the otter is protected by a thick fur against 
friction, find that notwithstanding the apparent smoothness, 
the fine sand in the clay has robbed them of a broad surface 
of cuticle, and that an otter slide is not altogether suited for 
human recreation.” The otter can be domesticated like the 
beaver, and becomes very docile. 
There is another species, ( Lutra destructor ,) so called 
from its destroying the beaver dams and houses, probably in 
search of the young beaver. It is met with in the Hudson 
Bay territory, but together with the third species, Calif ornica, 
of the Pacific coast, little is accurately known of them. The 
Ojibbeways, however, knew long ago of their existence, from 
the two different names used for the two species in their lan- 
guage. The sea-otter is exclusively resident within the 49th 
and 60th degrees north latitude. 
c 
