274 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
Some skins are large, well furred, and even in colour, 
but have the tips very unevenly distributed, some 
places perhaps lacking them altogether; or there may 
be a 66 woolly 55 patch (often in the middle of the 
back), which mars the beauty of what would other¬ 
wise be a very fine skin. Others may be of a 
beautiful black, and evenly furred and tipped from 
shoulders to end of tail, but having the head and 
belly white, or nearly so. In some pelts the tips 
have a slightly curled-up, singed appearance; in 
others, the end appears to be broken off. The im¬ 
perfect pelts are almost always those of adult 
animals. Sea-otters which are not full-grown are 
much more even in colour and quality of fur, but the 
silvery tips are usually too abundant and close 
together. In many skins the longer hairs are not 
silvery, but black or brown in colour. 
The head is roundish, with small ears ; the eyes 
are black and beady ; and the whiskers, which are 
white, somewhat resemble those of a cat, but the 
hairs are coarser and stiffer. The teeth are adapted 
for feeding upon almost anything. It has particu¬ 
larly strong molars, and finds no difficulty in chewing 
up good-sized crabs, which, judging from the con¬ 
tents of the many stomachs I have opened and 
examined, appear to be its chief food. The fore¬ 
legs are short and thick, and the toes, which are not 
webbed, have short nails and naked, black, granu¬ 
lated, skin-covered palms. The hind-limbs are much 
longer and flipper-like in form ; the foot part some¬ 
what resembles the human hand in size and shape. 
The toes, the longest of which are on the outside, are 
about the length of the fingers, and are joined by a 
thin membrane of skin covered with fur on both the 
