280 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
the contents of the stomachs of hundreds. In no 
case did I find any trace of seaweed, and very seldom 
any of ordinary fish, the bones of which would, of 
course, immediately prove its presence. Steller’s 
statement that the otter seeks its food, when the tide 
is out, on “ the shallow, rocky reefs overgrown with 
seaweed, etc.,” is either an error or the otter has 
changed its habits. The only food it could get on 
the exposed rocks when the tide is out would be 
seaweed, mussels, limpets, and sea-urchins. I have 
never noticed any traces of the shells of clams or 
limpets or mussels in the stomachs I examined, but 
found as a rule the remains of crabs, sea-urchins, 
sea-squirts, and what looked like fish-spawn. The 
crabs and other crustaceans are chewed up and 
swallowed shell and all. On one occasion I found the 
stomach of an otter I killed some eight or ten miles 
off shore filled with the remains of a quantity of 
small fish, with no signs of the remains of any 
crustaceans; the skin of this animal was very 
inferior, being mouse-coloured, with short fur and 
few or no long hairs. The otter dives for its food, 
and comes to the surface to devour it, holding it 
between its fore-paws. I have watched them feeding 
on many occasions from the shore, when they sought 
shelter in the kelp-patches in stormy weather. 
Unfortunately, mistakes are not confined to the 
old writers. In the Scientific American Supplement, 
May 12, 1906, it is stated that 66 the eminent zoologist 
Pechnel-Loesche confirms the playfulness of the sea- 
otter, saying that they frolic like dolphins, and 
appear to take especial pleasure in leaping very high, 
and falling back into the water with a loud splash.” 
In the whole twenty odd years of my experience I 
