Show romance of americans Ameri cals most valuable fur animal by JOHN dickinson SHERMAN 1 S sea otter extinct i IT lias this most valuable of f 1 all american fur bearing hj animals gone the way ot the great auk and the pas pigeon the fate of the sea otter will not be officially cnown or a ear or more in 1927 there will ably be a renewal in some form of the agreement for the protection of the fur seal which has been in existence felace 1912 among the united states greit britain japan and russia the negotiations will presumably show whether or not the sea otter Is ex if it 13 not extinct an international effort may be made to bring it bick hy should it particularly concern the people of the richest and most pow erful nation of earth whether or not Is extinct the sea otter an animal of which nine out of ten have probably pro bibly never heard well all good americans should have a deep and abiding interest in the history of their country and the history of the united states can no more be written without the sea otter than without the beaver it was the beaver as everyone knows that led to the exploration of the continent it was the trapper and fur trader in pursuit of beaver skins who mapped the country and blazed the trails for the settlers covered wagon and tor the railroad and tor the march of the american people across the continent it narrowly es extinction but Is now safe in the national parks the extinction of the sea otter now seems to be an open question the animal has apparently vanished from the eye of the white man let natives at infrequent intervals report seeing it and occasionally a pelt Is mar feted by poachers on the other hand the sea otter Is neither polygamous nor gregarious so there are no erles as in the case of the fur seal moreo er the sea ot ter Is an aquatic and seldom visits the lind except in the heavy of winter in the spring and summer it goes out to sea for a hun decd miles or so it Is here that the single cub Is born the mother usually resorting to a mass of floating kelp so the sea otter Is usually found in families rather than in herds now here Is why the history of the united states cannot be written without the sea otter peter the great of russia on his death bed in 1723 issued a decree that a dane in his employ should croas siberia to build ships and search for the main land supposed to lie east of japan the result was that in 1742 bearings Beh rings men returned from alaska with furs of the sea otter which they had used for coats and bedding and found a ready macket at a pelt thenceforth the sea otter of the north pacific were as important to vt ha www ws s ws st ba i wl w russia as were the gold mines of mexico and peru to spain within five years after 1742 there were 77 profit sharing companies at work catching sea otter out of this came directly the rus occupation of the northwest coast as far bouth as san alie doctrine of 1823 that checked russia s vision of an can pacific empire the acquisition of the oregon territory and the purchase from russia by the united states of alaska in for 7 an exploring expedition headed by apt james cook sailed into nootka sound in 1778 the sail ors bought sea otter pelts for trinkets and sold them for each in can ton as the chinese had no heit in their houses and knew nothing of woolen cloth isea england learned of this about 1785 forthwith new england merchants established a flourishing and increasing triangular trade new england notions to the pacific northwest furs to canton teas and silks to new england new englanders enjoyed a practical monopoly of this triangular trade the russians were barred from chinese ports the east indian company bad the exclusive right in england to trade with china but could not send its vessels to the pacific northwest for furs the south sea company could get furs but could not take them to china so the americans and russians worked together ignoring the spaniard in the out of this came the mexican war the annexation of california the gold rush of 1849 the transcontinental railroad of and the hastening of the american march across the continent the original habitat of the sea otter extended from mexico to the aleutian islands it was found in largest num bera off the coasts of upper and low er california and on the coat islands including those of the santa channel san francisco bay was also a favorite haunt after commercialized hunting began the white man took fleets of bl darkas small skin canoes on sailing ships to the hunting grounds the bathea on the ship for months living at a time an other plan n as to leave small colonies of native hunters from alaska along the coast all so fast and furious was the of the sea otter and so indiscriminate pursuit the slaughter its pelt Is prime the I 1 oar round that the trade diminished rapidly after 1820 later expeditions took only hundreds of skins thousands had where been the catch 1803 a catch of fifty pelts in exception was the how many skins were marketed in china Is a matter of estimate william sturges one of the most successful ot the new england traders estimated the number at approximately for the year 1801 for the eight years W between 1804 and 1812 these figures are given year salna ter BUM 1801 6 II 11 1801 9 1805 8 17 2101 10 1801 7 14 21 1110 11 1107 8 16 47 1111 12 11 U the profits in the sea otter fur with china were enormous though fluctuating greatly sometimes corn petition between the traders price demanded by the indians to high figures sometimes the chinese mar let became glutted the average price for aea otter skins at canton was somewhere P around 40 in 1785 prime skins brought each in 1802 the price 1 was 20 three biars later sales were easy at 50 the record price for 1 pelt Is said to be 2 BOO place of sale n j some astonishing stories of tha early days are told and they are apparently parent ly authentic william sturges ls previously mentioned on one doyaga collected skins he purchased la one half day skins with goodgi worth a dollar and a half in boston 1 the same skins sold for 40 each tn the canton market richard clere fj land like sturges a well known england trader bought skins aroa the sound indians for tw yards of cotton cloth each he sold them in canton for 23 each the prize story and it Is a that names are lacking tells how most fortunate trader secured worth of sea otter skins tor a rusty steel chisel the sea otter as seen from the at CT reproduction of a ing by II 11 bruce in magazine has a body suggesting that of the common seal the animal ll 11 from three to four feet long inclosing a nine inch tall and weighs from 80 to pounds the flat oar hind feet suggest the flappers of tb beal the forefeet are very anial i there la little or no neck and the lieal Is blunt it feeds on mussels crust ceans and possibly on tender growths the fur Is generally of a deep liver brown color frosted with a scanty growth of long sliver tipped sta hairs and underlain with a soft woolly fur which gives the P its value the skin of a mature ai mal Is about five feet long and ti than two feet wide the fur Is e dally adaptable to a gilt or golden j dye in the old days it was thus col ti ored by the russians tor use in court garments |