THE SEA-OTTER 
273 
An adult sea-otter measures, from nose to tip of 
tail, from 4 feet to 4 feet 6 inches in the case of 
the very largest, and weighs up to about 30 pounds. 
The skin is remarkably loose on the body, and, when 
stretched and “ staked out 55 on a frame, the largest 
will measure as much as 90 inches from nose to end 
of tail, by 36 inches wide. In a skin of this size 
there will be about 15 square feet (5 by 3 feet) of 
skin, without reckoning the head, neck, paws, 
flippers, and tail. 
The pelage of the sea-otter consists of a very fine, 
dense, soft, and silky fur, from i inch to 1 J inches in 
length, with a proportion of somewhat longer hairs 
which are coarser and stiffer. Near the roots the 
fur is of a lustrous pearly whitish colour, darkening 
towards the outside to black in the best skins, and 
in others to various shades of brown, from a dark 
liver colour to lighter shades. The finest skins are 
black, with white silvery hairs distributed evenly, 
about § inch apart all over. When a pelt of this 
kind is of full size, well and evenly furred and tipped, 
and of a uniform colour throughout (head excepted, 
which is often white), it is considered a No. 1 skin, 
and fetches a high price in the market. The next 
grade is not so dark, but may be quite as well furred 
and tipped. Then come the dark brown skins, and 
then those of lighter shades, which may or may not 
have silvery tips; then rusty brown skins, and 
lastly 66 woolly 35 skins, with short fur and few or no 
long hairs ; these are sometimes of an ash-grey or 
mouse colour, and look as if the fur had been clipped 
with shears. All the above grades have different 
degrees of quality. Size, perfection of fur, and even¬ 
ness of colour and tips, are of first consideration. 
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