The depredations committed in rivers and fish ponds by this voracious animal, are not compensated by the value of its skin, which however affords a fine fur of deep brown colour, particularly if the animal be killed in the winter; for then its shade is darker than at any other season of the year. Otters are generally either caught in traps, or chased by dogs, and men armed with long spears.
Their flesh is allowed by the canons of the Romish church to be eaten on maigre days, from its supposed resemblance to fish, on which otters almost wholly subsist. In the kitchen of the Carthusian convent near Dijon, Mr. Pennant saw the servants preparing an otter for the dinner of the religious of that rigid order, who, by their rules, are prohibited, during their whole lives, the eating of flesh.
It is possible so far to tame and educate these animals as to render them serviceable in catching fish. Many instances of this have been mentioned. An inhabitant of Christianstadt in Sweden had an otter which daily procured for him as much fish as served for the use of his family. Dr. Goldsmith speaks of having himself seen an otter plunge into a gentleman's pond at the word of command, drive the fish into a corner, and, seizing one of the largest, bring it off to his master; and in Bewick's History of Quadrupeds two instances of this proficiency are noted. In one of these it is stated that the otter would sometimes catch for his master as many as eight or ten salmon in a day. As soon as one was brought to the shore and taken from its mouth, it dived in pursuit of another; and when tired would refuse to fish any longer, after which it was rewarded with as much as it could devour.
The otter always hunts for his prey against the stream; and usually destroys several fish at a time, seldom devouring more than the upper part of their bodies. These animals fish in the sea as well as in fresh water; and their habitation is a den or burrow, which they form or find near the banks of rivers or other water, from which they can take food.
59. The SEA-OTTER (Lutra marina) is chiefly distinguishable from the common species by its hind feet being hairy, and the tail being only one fourth part as long as the body.
Its length, exclusive of the tail, is about three feet; and its fur extremely soft, and of deep glossy black or dark brown, colour. The hind legs somewhat resemble those of a seal ([23]).
These animals are found on the sea-coast of Kamtschatka and the adjacent islands, as well as on most parts of the opposite coast of America.
A considerable trade in sea-otters' skins is carried on betwixt Russia and other nations. The Kamtschadales, on whose coasts the animals are chiefly killed, barter them with the Cossacks, and they with the Russian merchants. So little do the Kamtschadales value these skins, that they exchange them freely for an equal number of foxes' or sables' skins, which are much indeed inferior to them in value. The Chinese are the principal purchasers of them from the Russians; and they pay for them at the rate of from seventy to a hundred rubles each. This great price, and the distance from which they are brought, are the principal causes of their being seldom seen in Europe.
The best skins are those of such animals as are killed betwixt the months of March and May. The fur of the sea-otter is, in some respects, inconvenient as cloathing, on account of its being very thick and heavy, otherwise (independently of its greater size) it would be superior in value to the fur of the sable. Its colour is generally black, but sometimes brown like the fur of the common otter. The skins of the females are easily distinguished from those of the males, by being smaller, more black, and having the hair longest under the belly. It was the trade for these and other furs, at Nootka Sound, on the north-western coast of America, which, in 1788, had nearly occasioned a rupture betwixt this country and Spain.
The flesh of the young sea-otters is said to be an extremely delicate food, and scarcely to be distinguishable from that of lamb.