Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/79

 T T T T 69 Steamers ply in summer down to Montreal, and for about 200 miles up the river above the falls, as well as through the Rideau Canal to Kingston. Philemon Wright of Woburn, in Massachusetts, settled in 1800 at the foot of the portage round the Chaudiere Falls on the site of Hull, and some twenty years later he transferred his claim to the hills on the other side of the river to a teamster named Sparks, who would have preferred the $200 due to him. Sparks Street is now the fashionable commercial street of Ottawa. In 1827 the Ridi-au Canal was constructed at a cost of $2,500,000 to connect lower Canada with Kingston on Lake Ontario, and in that way prevent the necessity of gun-boats, &c., passing up the St Lawrence exposed to the enemy s fire ; and soon afterwards a town sprang up at the Ottawa end, called Bytown after Colonel By, R. E., who had surveyed the canal. At its incorporation as a city in 1854 Bytown received the name of Ottawa. In 1858 the queen, to whom the matter was referred, selected Ottawa as the capital of the Dominion of Canada, partly because of the advantages of its site, and partly to avoid invidious preference among the rival claims of Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto. The first session of parliament in Ottawa was opened in 1865. OTTAWA, a city of the United States, capital of La Salle county, Illinois, on both sides of the Illinois above and below the mouth of the Fox river (which furnishes abund ant water-power by a fall of 29 feet), on the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and at the junction of the Fox river branch of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railway with the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railway, 84 miles south west of Chicago. Ottawa ships large quantities of produce and live stock, and has manufactories of agricultural imple ments, carriages, glass, and clothing. The more conspicuous buildings are those occupied by the county courts and jail, and the supreme court for the northern division of the State. Near the south bank of the Illinois there are mineral springs possessing important medicinal properties. In 1880 the population was 7834 (811 in South Ottawa). OTTENSEN, a town of Prussia, in the province of Schleswig-Holstein, lies on the right bank of the Elbe, immediately below Altona, of which it practically forms a part. It contains numerous villas of Hamburg merchants, and carries on manufactures of machinery, tobacco, soap, gilt frames and cornices, glass, iron, and other articles. Ottensen, which received its municipal charter in 1871, contained 15,375 inhabitants at the census of 1880. The three &quot;Graves of Ottensen,&quot; besung by the poet Riickert, are those of 1138 citizens, who were expelled from Ham burg by Marshal Davoust in 1813-14, and perished here, of Charles, duke of Brunswick, who died at Ottensen of wounds received at the battle of Jena, and of Klopstock and his wife Meta. The last alone now remains. OTTER, a group of animals belonging to the family Mustelidve, of the order Carnivora (see MAMMALIA, vol. xv. p. 439), distinguished from their allies by their aquatic habits. The true otters constitute the genus Lutra of zoologists, of which the common species of the British Isles, L. vulgaris, may be taken as the type. It has an elongated, low body, short limbs, short broad feet, with five toes on each, connected together by webs, and all with short, moderately strong, compressed, curved, pointed claws. Head rather small, broad, and flat ; muzzle very broad ; whiskers thick and strong ; eyes small and black ; ears short and rounded. Tail a little more than half the length of the body and head together, very broad and strong at the base, and gradually tapering to the end, some what flattened horizontally. The fur is of very fine quality, consisting of a short soft under fur of a whitish grey colour, brown at the tips, interspersed with longer, stiffer, and thicker hairs, very shining, greyish at the base, bright rich brown at the points, especially on the upper parts and outer surface of the legs ; the throat, cheeks, under parts and inner surface of the legs brownish grey through out. Individual otters vary much in size. The total length from the nose to the end of the tail averages about 3 1 feet, of which the tail occupies 1 foot 3 or 4 inches. The weight of a full size male is from 18 to 24 ft, that of a female about 4 flb less. As the otter lives almost exclusively on fish, it is rarely met with far from water, and usually frequents the shores of brooks, rivers, lakes, and, in some localities, the sea itself. It is a most expert swimmer and diver, easily over taking and seizing fish in the water, but when it has cap tured its prey it brings it to shore to devour it. When lying upon the bank it holds the fish between its fore-paws, commences at the head and then eats gradually towards the tail, which it is said always to leave. The female produces three to five young ones at a time, in the month of March or April, and brings them up in a nest formed of grass or other herbage, usually placed in a hollow place in the bank of a river, or under the shelter of the roots of some overhanging tree. The Common Otter is found in localities suitable to its habits throughout Great Britain and Ireland, though far less abundantly than formerly, for, being very destructive to fish, and thus coming into keen competition with those who pursue the occupation of fish ing either for sport or for gain, it is rarely allowed to live in peace when once its haunts are discovered. Otter hunting with packs of hounds of a special breed, and trained for the purpose, was formerly a common pastime in the country. When hunted down and brought to bay by the dogs, the otter is finally despatched by long spears carried for the purpose by the huntsmen. The Common Otter ranges throughout the greater part of Europe and Asia. A closely allied but larger species, L. canadensis, is extensively distributed throughout North America, where it is systematically pursued by professional trappers for the value of its fur. An Indian species, L. nair, is regularly trained by the natives of some parts of Bengal to assist them in fishing, by driving the fish into the nets. In China also otters are taught to catch fish, being let into the water for the purpose attached to a long cord. Otters are widely distributed over the earth, and, as they are much alike in size and coloration, their specific distinctions are by no means well defined. Besides those mentioned above, the following have been described, L. californica, North America ; L. felina, Central America, Peru, and Chili ; L. brasiliensis, Brazil ; L. maculicollis, South Africa ; L. whiteleyi, Japan ; L. chinensis, China and Formosa, and other doubtful species. A very large species from Demerara and Surinam, with a prominent flange-like ridge along each lateral margin of the tail, L. sandbachii, constitutes the genus Pteronura of Gray. Others, with the feet only slightly webbed, and the claws exceedinglysmall or altogether wanting on someof the toes, and also with some difference in dental characters, are with better reason separated into a distinct genus called A onyx. These are A. inunguis from South Africa and A. leptonyx from Java and Sumatra. More distinct still is the Sea-Otter (Enhydra lutris). It differs from all other known Carnivora in having but two incisors on each side of the lower jaw, the one correspond ing to the first (very small in the true otters) being con stantly absent. Though the molar teeth resemble those of Lutra in their proportions, they differ very much in the exceeding roundness and massiveness of their crowns and bluntness of their cusps. The fore feet are very small, with five short webbed toes, and naked palms ; the hind feet are altogether iinlike those of the true otters, but approaching those of the seals, being large, flat, palmated, and furry on both sides. The outer toe is the largest and stoutest, the rest gradually diminishing in size to the first. The tail is about one-fourth of the length of the head and body, cylindrical and obtuse. The entire length of the body is considerably larger and more massive than that of the English otter. The skin is peculiarly loose, and stretches when removed from the animal so as to give the idea of a still larger creature than it really is. The fur is remarkable for the preponderance of the beautifully soft woolly under fur, the longer stiffer hairs being very scanty. The general colour is a deep liver-brown, everywhere silvered or frosted with the hoary tips of the longer stiff
 * animal from nose to end of tail is about 4 feet, so that the