stimulated the commercial enterprise of that day. Other witnesses followed. Meares, describing his voyage, placed this fur high above all other furs,--“the finest in the world, and of exceeding beauty”;[168] and La Pérouse made it known in France as “the most precious and the most common peltry” of those regions.[169] Shortly afterwards all existing information with regard to it was elaborately set forth in the Historical Introduction to the Voyage of Marchand, published at Paris under the auspices of the Institute.[170] The sea-otter was known originally to the Russians in Kamtchatka, where it was called the sea-beaver; but the discoveries of Behring constitute an epoch in the commerce. His shipwrecked crew, compelled to winter on the desert island now bearing his name, found this animal in flocks, ignorant of men and innocent as sheep, so that they were slaughtered without resistance, to the number of “near nine hundred.”[171] Their value became known. Fabulous prices were paid by the Chinese, sometimes, according to Coxe, as high as one hundred and forty rubles.[172] At such a price a single sea-otter was more than five ounces of gold, and a flock was a gold mine. The pursuit of gold was renewed. It was the sea-otter that tempted the navigator, and subsequent enterprise was under the incentive of obtaining the precious fur. Müller, calling him a beaver, says, in his history of Russian Discovery, “The catching of beavers in those parts enticed many people to go to them, and they never returned without great quantities, which always produced large profits.”[173] All that could be obtained were sent to China, which was the objective point commercially for this whole coast. The trade became a fury. The animal, with exquisite purple-black fur, appeared only to be killed,--not always without effort, for he had learned something of his huntsman, and was now coy and watchful, so that the pursuit was often an effort; but his capture was always a triumph. The natives, accustomed to his furs as clothing, now surrendered them. Sometimes a few beads were the only pay. All the navigators speak of the unequal barter,--“any sort of beads,” according to Cook.[174] The story is best told by Meares: “Such as were dressed in furs instantly stripped themselves, and in return for a moderate quantity of large spike-nails we received sixty fine sea-otter skins.”[175] Vancouver describes the “humble fashion” of the natives in poor skins as a substitute for the beautiful furs appropriated by “their Russian friends.”[176] The picture is completed by the Russian navigator, when he confesses, that, after the Russians had any intercourse with them, the natives ceased to wear sea-otter skins.[177] In the growing rage the sea-otter nearly disappeared. Langsdorff reports the race “nearly extirpated,” since “the high price given for the skins induces the Russians, for the sake of a momentary advantage, to kill all they meet with, both old and young; nor can