a birth were "Medvyedki," or "little 
bears," because their pelts resemble 
that of a young bear. 
When the little ones are about five 
months old, they become covered with 
a soft, downy fur and are called 
"Koshloki." In the fur records the 
skins are known as "morskikh bob- 
rov," or sea beaver in distinction from 
the "ryechnoi bobrov" or river bea- 
ver. The most prized skins were taken 
in March, April and May. 
The market for the fur was chiefly 
in China during the Russian occupa- 
tion. The skins were taken overland 
by caravan, through the treaty port of 
Kiachta, until the Round-the-World 
ships began carrying the fur by sea in 
1806. After this many were shipped 
direct to Canton by sea. The market 
varied according to the supply and 
demand, as it does on all furs. 
The sea otter loved to live both in 
the water and on land, and was found 
in droves on Bering Island. The steady 
pursuit of the hunters soon drove it to 
sea, where it found an existence, fre- 
quenting barren rocks and kelp-beds 
at sea, coming rarely to shore, and 
feeding on marine crustaceans, mol- 
lusks, and small fishes. 
S ERGEANT BASOF, one of Bering's 
crew on the fateful voyage, was 
the first to outfit a ship for the hunt- 
ing grounds. In 1746 he returned with 
a cargo of 1760 sea otter, 1990 fur 
seals and 2240 blue and white fox 
skins, the whole valued at 112,220 
rubles, and all procured in a year on 
the Commander group of islands. 
The news of Basof's success spread 
over Siberia. Down to Okhotsk on the 
Sea of Kamchatka came hundreds of 
Promyshleniks, the fur gatherers and 
traders of the country, eager to em- 
bark on any kind of craft for the 
wonderful islands that yielded the 
harvest of furs. 
For forty years they kept coming. 
Out on the sea went the crazily built 
ships, poorly constructed, worse rig- 
ged with cordage brought across thou- 
sands of miles of Siberian wilderness. 
Some of the boats had timbers sewn 
with withes. These were called shi- 
ti-ka or sewed boats. Storms beat 
 
Kodiak was once the center of the sea otter hunting activities of the Russians.

 
them, sank them; yet others came. 
Enough carried rich cargoes back to 
Okhotsk to induce others to take the 
place of those who failed. 
As they plundered an island of its 
fur, they went on to the next, still on 
and on to the eastward. The sea otter 
was the coveted prize, although any 
kind of fur; seal, white or red fox 
was taken. Beaver were trapped or 
shot after the mainland was reached. 
The kind of fur taken indicated 
where the cargo was procured. The 
white and blue foxes came from the 
Commander group, the gray and black 
fox from the Lissevski and the Fox 
Islands, the beaver from the continent, 
the sea otter from the whole Aleutian 
Chain and protected waters of Cook 
Inlet and Prince William Sound. 
THE otter was worth $30 in Kam- 
chatka; in China at times sixty or 
more. The fur seal brought about 1 
rubles. The Pribilof Islands were not 
discovered until 1786, but before that 
time one ship had taken 39,500 fur 
seals, mostly from the Commander 
Islands. This was fortune making for 
the adventurers, especially when there 
were 310 sea otter and 990 foxes in- 
 
Few otters were lost or escaped when the "surround" method was
used by the 
Aleuts. By this plan the men in the center bidarka mark the wake of a sea

otter at the moment of its sounding while the others wait to harpoon him.

Drawing from "Our Arctic Province" by H. W. Elliott. 
 
July, 1938. 
 
cluded in the cargo which totaled 
98,340 rubles in value. 
The richest cargo brought to port 
was that of the Fish, in 1757, valued 
at 354,000 rubles. The cargoes of 79 
ships are recorded with a total value 
of 6,957,176 rubles, perhaps six mil- 
lions of dollars. There were 96,067 sea 
otter, 417,758 fur seals, 41,129 gray, 
black, and red foxes. Of blue and 
white fox there were 62,361. These 
were all taken by the independent 
hunters and traders, before the Rus- 
sian American Company, the great ri- 
val of the Hudson's Bay Company of 
Canada, secured control under their 
charter from the Imperial Russian 
Government, in 1799. 
N ADDITION to this, the Shelikof 
and Golikof Company, between 1786 
and 1797, exported to Siberia 15,647 
sea otter, 39,266 fur seals, 3,360 land 
otter, 15,551 gray, black and red fox, 
and 600 white and red fox. Their ship- 
ments were valued at 1,479,600 rubles. 
The methods pursued by the hunt- 
ers were destructive. The Russians 
clubbed, stabbed or shot the animals. 
The natives practiced the surround 
by a chain of bidarkas at sea, from 
which the game was secured by arrow 
or spear. Neither spared sex or age. 
Later, when the animals became 
more scarce and shy, the Russian 
Promishleniks sailed to an Aleut vil- 
lage, gathered the women and girls 
into a big native house, a barabora, 
held them nominally as hostages for 
the conduct of the men whom they 
furnished with kleptzi-cruel toothed 
traps-and sent out to gather the fur. 
In the spring the Russians took the 
furs, gave the women a few beads, as 
many yards of calicoes or prints as 
they saw fit, then sailed back to Ok- 
hotsk to spend their proceeds in riot- 
ous debauchery in the dives of that 
disreputable emporium. 
All kinds of fur along the islands 
grew scarce. One ship was gone from 
Okhotsk for seven years to gather a 
cargo, under Sturman Zaikof, and the 
results of the voyage were valued at 
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