Show T EED boft a ter 0 aan 7 4 M e 0 A azza 0 M 1 a zinc romance of A americans meri cals most valuable fur animal i by JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN S TIIE THE sea otter extinct 71 7 1 lias this most valuable ol of all awe american rican fur bearing antilia ls gone the way of 0 KH wa bg ta the great auk and the llie pus pas pl f il benger ea tle the late ate am ij of the sea aca otter A III not dot le be officially known for it a lar ear ur or wore in 1927 there will ably be a renewal tit in some tonu foral of the agreement for the protection of the lur fur seal which aich has been in exis existence tente since 1912 9 among the united states great britain japan and russia the negotiations lations will presumably show vil whether lether or not the sea otter Is extinct it if it Is not extinct an extraordinary international efort may be made to bring it back why should it particularly concern the people of the and most powerful nation of earth whether or not la Is extinct the sen otter it an animal of which nine out of ten tell haie bae probably never heard beard well ivell all good Ameri americans cang should have a deep and abiding interest in the history of their country and the history of the united states can no wore more be written without It hout the sea otter than without the beaver it was tile the beaver as ever everyone everdane rane knows that led to the exploration of the continent it was a the trapper and fur trader in pursuit of beaver skins who aho mapped the country and blazed the traits trails for the settlers covered wagon and for tile the rall railroad road and for the march of the american people across the continent it narrowly e escaped extinction hut but Is now safe in the national parks parka the extinction of the sea pea otter now seems to lie be on an open quest inn tile the animal has apparently vanished from the cyp of the white man yet natives at infrequent intervals report seeing it and occasionally a pelt la 19 marketed by poachers on the other hand the r sea ea otter Is neither polygamous nor gregarious so there are no roo rookeries rook eries herles as in the ense of the fur seal moreover the sea otter Is an aquatic animal and seldom visits the land except in the heavy arms of winter in the spring find and summer it goes out to tar sea for a ilu hundred 1 miles italics or so it Is here that the single cub Is born the mother usually resorting to lo a mass of floating kelp keip so the sea otter Is usually found in families rather than in herds now here ts Is why the history lil story of the tho united states cannot be Arlt ten without the son bea otter peter the great of russia on his deathbed death bed in 1723 1725 5 issued a derree decree that vitus behring bc a dane in ills his employ should C ross cross siberia to build ships and search for the lie main land supposed to lie east of japan tin thal result sult was that in 1742 Beh bearings rings nien men returned from alaska with furs of the sea otter which the they had used tor for coats end and bedding and found a ready market at a pelt thenceforth the sea otter ground of if the north were as important to 4 us as were viere the llie gold mines ta 1 mexico and peru to spain within the years after 1712 1742 17 12 there were 77 profit sharing companies at work catching sea otter out of this came directly the russian sian occupation of if the northwest coast as far south as san francisco the monroe doctrine of 1823 that checked Rus Ru sias vision n of an aali american erl pacific empire the acquisition of the lie oregon territory find anil the purchase from russia by the united states of alaska in tor for an english expedition headed by capt junies james cook sailed into nootka sound in 1778 tile the still bail ors bought sea bea otter pelts for trinkets and sold then them fur for each in canton as the chinese had no heat in their houses and knew nothing of woolen cloth ne england learned of this about 1785 forthwith new england merchants a flourishing and increasing triangular trade new england notions to the pacific 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 chinee ports the east indian company had 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 pet get furs but could not take them to china so the americans and russians Kus slana worked work PJ together tog ther ignoring the spaniard in the out of this came the Blex mexican ican war the annexation of california the zold gold rush ruh of 1819 18 19 the triin railroad of 1869 and the hastening ba of nf the american march across the continent the original lital of tile the pea ea otter extent extended led from mexico to the aleutian islands it was in largest numbers oil off the coasts of upper and lower california and on tile the cohrt coast islands including those of tile the santa channel san francisco bay was al also 0 o a 11 favorite haiat after aher commercialized limiting bunting began the white man took fleets of bl darkas small mall stitt canoes on sailing balling ships to the hunting grounds tile llie natives living on the ship tor for months at a time another plan was to leave small colonies of native hunters froni from alaska all along the coast so fast and furious was the pursuit of tile sea otter and so indiscriminate the slaughter its pelt Is prime tile llie year round that the trade diminished rapidly after 1820 later expeditions expedition took only hundreds of skins where thousands had bad been the catch in 1803 a catch of fifty pelts was tile exception how flow many skins were marketed in j V 4 rf 11 2 abow n AV 1 hina is a matter of estimate william sturgis ls one of the most successful ful of the new england traders estimated I 1 the number at approximately for the year 1801 for the eight years between 1804 and 1812 these figures are given tear skins year teu skins ha 6 1100 11 11 0 1 HO 4 1 alloi I 1 1100 1806 7 1110 11 1307 oi 9 hii 12 nii the profits in the sea otter fur trade with china were enormous though fluctuating greatly sometimes competition between the traders raised the price by the indians to high figures sometimes the chinese marlet became glutted elt ted the average price for sea otter skins at canton was somewhere around W 40 in 1785 prime skins brought each in 1802 the price was 20 three years later sates sales easy at 50 the record price tor for a pelt Is suld said to be 2500 place of sale kale unknown some astonishing stories of the early days are told and they are tip parent patently ly authentic william sturgis previously mentioned on one voyage collected skins he purchased pur cased in one halfday half day GOO skins with goods gooda worth a dollar a and nd a halt half in boston the same skins sold for 40 each la ili the canton marlet market richard cleveland like sturgis a well known new england trader bought skins from the llie norfolk sound indians for two yards of cotton cloth each he sold them in canton for 23 each the prize factory atory find and it Is a pity elliut names fire are lacking tells how a most fortunate trader secured wort worth if f va ca otter skins for a rusty steel chisel I 1 1 I lie bell eu utter titter as seen from the ac i reproduction 11 ot of a painting p at n by n R bruce in 1 nature magazine agazine Ni has a body suggesting that of the common seal the la 19 1 from three to four feet long iong include trig ing a nine inch tall and weighs from so 80 to pounds tile the oat flat oar like alke hind feet suggest tile the flappers of the he eal teal t s the forefeet are very small there Is 19 little or no neck and the head Is blunt it faedi fc d on mussels crusta ceans and possibly on tender kelp growths tile the fur Is generally of a deep liver brown color frosted frost pil with it scanty growth of long bliver tipped hairs and underlain with a beautiful soft oft woolly fur which gives the pelt pell its value the skin of a mature not mul mal Is about five feet long and moro than two feet wide the fur for li 14 espe dally adaptable to a gilt or golden dye in the old days it was thua colored by tile russians Itus for use in court garments I 1 |