Show woo hL MOM C GOMM I 1 A A it lp 0 W ll 11 r t 71 A W 4 R T va z ro mance of A X W A most I 1 valuable fur an ay 40 A nimat n m 7 by JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN bherman a TUB sea otter extinct lias ilas tills this most valuable of ull till american fur betting bearing gono tho the way of tile great auk and tile passenger pigeon tile fate of the sea ben otter will not bo be officially known for it year or more in 1027 there will ably be a renewal in some kome form of tile the agreement for tho the protection al of the fur seal which tins been in existence since 1012 among tho the united states grent great britain japan and It Ilus sla the negotiations will presumably show whether or not the sea ben otter Is extinct it if it la 14 not extinct an extra or unary international effort way may be made to bring it back why should it particularly concern tile the people of the richest and most powerful nation of earth whether or not Is extinct the son sea otter an animal of which nine out ot of ten have probably never heard well wei 1 nil good americans americana should have a deep ana wiling abiding interest in ow ho history of their country and tho the history of tile the united states enn can no more be written without the sen sea otter than without the benver beaver it was tile beaver its as everyone eve knows that loci led to the exploration of the continent it was tile the trapper nil aisil fur trader in pursuit of beaver skins wild mapped lie abe country and blazed tile the trolls trails for tho settlers covered wagon and for forthe tile railroad tind for the march of tile the american people across the continent it narrowly escaped extinction but la Is now safe bafo lit in the national purus parks tile the extinction of the sea otter now seems elems to bo be tin open question the animal has apparently vanished from the eye of the white ninn man yet natives tit at infrequent intervals report seeing it and occasionally a pelt Is mar kited by poa poachers cherB on tile the other hand tile the sea otter Is neither polygamous nor gregarious so there are no rookeries rook eries as in tile case of tile the fur seal Ifor moreover cover the sea een otter la is an aquatic animal and seldom visits the land except in the heavy forms torms of winter in ill tile the spring nd and glimmer it goes out to pea fea for a hundred miles or so it I 1 lf f hf bf re that tile the cub Is born the mother usually resorting to a daivs of floating kelp so tile the bea otter Is usually found in families rather than in herds berds now here la Is why the history of tho the united states cannot be written without tile the soa sea otter poter peter the great of Ilus sla on hi ills deathbed death bed in 1723 1725 issued a decree that hint vittis 1 a dane in 1114 employ t hould cross crosa Siber siberia lit to build ships and search for the mainland supposed to llo lie past eama of japan tho the result was wag that in 1712 1742 17 12 Ilch rings men returned from alaska turn ot of the sea acu otter which they had find bied for coats coata and bedding and found a ready market at a pelt thenceforth the sen sea otter arounds of if the north pacific were as important to k ar el It russia lissin as were the gold lilues of mexico and peru to spain within live ive years after 17 2 there were 77 profit allarding companies at work catching sea otter out of cainie directly tho the russian occupation of thu tho northwest coast ns na far south ns as sun san francisco flie doctrine of 1823 that checked Ilus vision lalon of till an american pacific empire the acquisition of oa L the oregon territory and the purchase from alussia fly by the united states of alaska in 1807 1867 for an english exploring expedition headed by capt james cook sailed balled into nootka sound in 1778 tile ballore ballora bought son sea otter pelts for trinkets and sold them for each in canton as the chinese had no heat in their houses and knew nothing of woolen cloth new england learned of this about 1785 forthwith now new england merchants established a flourishing till and increasing triangular trade now new england notions to the pacific northwest norths cat furs fors to cauton canton teas and silks to now new E england and now new enjoyed a practical monopoly of tills this triangular trade the Itus were barred from chinese ports boits the lust bast indian company lind the exclusive right in england to trade with china but could not send bend its vessels to the pacific northwest for fin furs a the youth sea company could get furs hut jilt could not take them hem to chinn china so tile the americans and russians worked together ignoring the spaniard in the out of this came caine the mexican war the annexation of california the gold rush of 1849 18 0 the transcontinental rall railroad of and the hastening of tile tho american march across tho the continent the original habitat of the sea otter extended from mexico to the aleutian islands laniK it was found in largest num bert oft tile thu con consta ats ot of upper till nud lower california und on the coast islands including choso of tile tho santa barbara channel san franciaco bay was also a favorite haunt after commercialized hunting began the white man took fleets fleet of small fit keln in canoes on hailing to the lie hunting gro ali abo natives ria tives alving or on the ship for months lit at a time another pinn was to beuve small colonies col onlea ut if native hunters from alaska ull all along tit aliv r oam baat t so go fast and furious wai wag tile pursuit of the sea a otter and so KO indiscriminate the ille tta its pelt Is s tile alio year round that tho the trade diminished rapidly after later expeditions exl editions took only hundred of where thousands thou sanda had dad been the catch in A catch of fifty pelts was tile the exception ilow ilov many skins were vere marketed in I 1 r china Is a matter of estimate william sturgis ls one ona of tho the most successful of tile the new england traders estimated tile alio number at approximately for the year 1801 for tho the eight years between 1801 1804 and 1812 these figures aro are given year skins tear fixing 1804 1808 1 I 7 1809 10 1806 7 1810 11 1807 8 1111 1811 13 tile tho profits in the sea otter fur trade with china viere enormous though fluctuating greatly sometimes competition between the traders raised the price demanded by the indians to hilgh figures sometimes tho the chinese market became glutted tho the average price for sea bea otter skins at canton was somewhere around 10 40 in 1785 prime skins brought each in 1802 the price was 20 three years later sales wera were easy tit at 50 the record price petco for it a pelt Is said setd to be 2500 place of sale unknown some bonie astonishing stories of the early days are told and they are apparently patently ly authentic william sturgis previously mentioned on ono one voyage collected skins he purchased in otio halfday half day skins with goods warth a dollar and a halt in boston the same skins sold for 40 each in tile canton market richard cleveland like sturgis a well known now new england trader bought skins from froin tale norfolk sound Ind indians lans for two yards of cotton cloth pach each lie he sold them in canton for 2 23 3 each the prize story and it Is a pity that names tire are lacking tell tello how a most fortunate trader secured worth of sea otter skins tor for a rusty steel chisel I 1 the hea otter as seen from the accompanying compa nying reproduction of a painting by it bruce Ilor stall in nature tins has a body suggesting that of the common seal the animal Is from three to four feet long including a nine inch tall and weighs from SO to pounds the tint hat oar like wild lelnd feet suggest the flappers of tile the sent seal the forefeet are very small there Is little or no neck arid and the head Is blunt it feeds on mussels crustaceans and possibly on tender I kelp gi growths the fur Is generally of a deep liver brown color frosted with it scanty growth of long sliver silver upped tipped stiffer hairs and underlain with a beautiful soft woolly fur which gives the pelt its tile skin of a int mature iture animal Is about five feet long 1019 and more mora than two foot fel A wide the fur la Is especially adaptable to a gilt or golden lye dye in the old days it was thu ahm 3 colored by the Itus russians for use in court garments |