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IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
three were lost, and those by being shot as they 
were in the act of diving, after having been chased 
for so long that their fur had become water-soaked. 
Unlike a seal, the sea-otter floats when killed. My 
experience does not coincide with what Mr. Lydekker 
says about the skin of a dead sea-otter being spoiled, 
if allowed to remain a few hours in the water, by the 
“ myriads of minute crustaceans which swarm in the 
Arctic Sea.” I have on at least half a dozen or 
more occasions picked up otters, which had been dead, 
I am certain, for several days, floating in the water ; 
in these cases clean cuts, caused by the beaks of 
albatrosses and other sea-birds which had attempted 
to feed on the dead bodies, were the only damage 
done. No doubt if a dead otter were washed up on 
a beach the skin would be ruined fairly quickly. 
Netting is represented to be a still more wasteful 
method than shooting, on the ground that the skins 
are irretrievably ruined if left for any length of time 
in the water; but if this were so I doubt if the Russian 
authorities would allow netting on Copper Island, 
where it is the only method permitted. 
Enough, however, of the correction of published 
misstatements about sea-otters, a task which might 
easily be expanded into a separate volume. 
‘ 4 White hunters ” skin their otters by ripping 
them up from the end of the tail along the belly up 
to the under-lip, then from the middle of the breast 
down each fore-paw, and from the anus down the 
inner edge of each hind-flipper. This enables the 
skin to be “ staked out ” flat and symmetrical, as 
shown in the plate at page 50. On hunting-vessels, 
boards about 6 feet long, 1 foot wide, and 1 inch 
thick, are carried to make frames on which to 
