“A learned institution sent an expedition southward, one of whose many projects was to determine whether or not the sea-otter was extinct. In due time it returned with the information that the sea-otter was indeed extinct.”
“One of us, some time later, talking with a woman on the coast below Monterey, was astonished to hear her describe animals living in the surf which could only be sea-otters, since she described accurately animals she couldn’t have known about except by observation. A report of this to the institution in question elicited no response. It had extincted sea-otters and that was that. It was only when a reporter on one of our more disreputable newspapers photographed the animals that the public was informed. It is not yet known whether the institution of learning has been won over.”
The news story below talks about how the “otters holding hands”
video on YouTube scored a million and a half viewings in its
first two weeks. At the time of this writing, the count is up to
15,249,497. If you want to check today’s count, here’s the link.