Morning journal and courier., 1894-05-16
The sea otter
 ". I. Hornadsy. tn May st. Niehola

W" l. fs i1 may N2cBolA&- Just at the present the ssa-ot;sr is the favori.s of the miliionsirsss, and his fur is the costiiest h the world. I wonder If any of the wearers of tLIs beautiful fur-so costly that the price of one set would feed a hungry family for two whole ysars- ever stop 10 fad ont how the fits. wesrer was born on bed of kylp. aoating ont h the open sea on the icy cold wsters of the Pacific, and litsraliy "rockei in the cradle of the deep; how be was brought up on the hsavlng b!lIo~s, and, whsn bad time came, found & soft resting place on hls mothers breast, while shs aostsd upon her back and claspsi him with hsr paws ss be slepi. how ths only land he ever knew was the rugged, rock bound shores of Alaska or Washington. Noward then, when the ocean was very rough, and betor. ths hunters were 60 bad, he used to | crawl ont upon a rock snd lie there, while | the roar of the breakers boomed In his sArs and the spray dashed over him in torrents | But then it is pro5ahls that not one woman | out of every 5O0 takes the trouble 10 learn the life history of the creature whcss furry coat she wears.
 II family, and Is very unlike the animal sftsr which the family is named. It hss 6 thick | clumsy body, wb;ch, with the round, | blunt head, is from three and & half to four feet In length. Unlike thoss of all other, otterr, the tail is short and srumpy, being about one-6flh the length of the head and body. As If to incrssss its value and hks ten its destruction, the tkin Is much larger than ihs body. like misit coat. and lies loosely upon 1t in many folds. For this req son the strstched psle ia slEsys much wider and longer than the animal that | wore 1t.
 The coat of ths full grown sea otter i. very dense, very fue, and its color is shim- nering, lustrous black. Ever since the earliest disc oFsTy of ihe sea otter by the Russians, its fur has bsen eagerly sought by .aasm, haa she cash priess of skins have always been so high that there is not, in the whole United States. a museum rict enough to afford good series of specimens MT. Charles Fl. Townsend, the patursliR' of the United States fsh commission
 writes me that in 1891 the priee of the bes | skins had reached Si00 each, and thefi value has been since increasing. On th' northwsst coast of the state of Washing ton, where sea ot.ers are rtiil found slonl thirty mile strip of coast (trom Gray Hsrbor, half way to Csps Fisttery). they are shot by hunters from tall 'dsrriok-' from thirty to forty fest high. erected ir the turf half way bstween high tide anC low tide, and the hunter who kills fou
 otters h year considers his work sue | cessful.
 Owing to the persistent hunting that ha
 been going on ever since Alaska came int
 our possession, the ses otter is rapidly fol loving the buffalo to the state of exter imitation.
 The favOrits food of the sea otter is no fish, as one might suppose from ths habit
 of the common otter, but clans. crabs
 mussels and ses-urchins. Its molsr teetl
 a:e of necessity very strong. for the grind irg up of this rough fare, and the muscle
 of the ts~a are approximately powerf0l