APPENDIX I 
THE SEA-OTTER 
Xsr the following account of the sea-otter, I have 
made considerable use of “ The Fur-Seal Investiga¬ 
tions,” 1896-97, Dr. ^eonhard Stejneger’s “ Russian 
Fur-Seal Islands,” 1896, and Ivan PeterofFs “ Report 
on Alaska,” 1882—all published by the United States 
Government—correcting from my own experience a 
few errors which, although of no particular impor¬ 
tance, it is as well to set right. 
The sea-otter —Enhydra lutris, Enhydra marina, 
Lutra marina, and more recently Latax lutris, as it is 
variously styled by scientific men—was found by the 
Russians on the Kamchatkan coast towards the end 
of the seventeenth century. Its beautiful fur, which 
brought very high prices in the fur-markets of China 
and Russia, caused it to be so persistently hunted 
that in the course of the next fifty years it became 
very scarce ; indeed, it was reported to be practically 
extinct on the coasts of Kamchatka. Adventurous 
hunters seeking for new haunts of this valuable 
animal found the Aleutian Islands. Attoo, the 
westernmost island of the chain, was discovered by 
Michall Novodiskov in 1745, and year after year the 
Russian hunters extended their researches farther 
to the eastward till all the islands were visited ; 
Kadiack being discovered in 1763, and the peninsula 
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