151 
THE EXTINCT NORTHERN SEA-COW, AND EARLY RUS- 
SIAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE NORTH PACIFIC. 
By Dr. Georcf. M. Dawson. C.M.G., F.R.S., etc. 
One object of the meetings of this club, is that of enabling its 
members and their friends to bring before the Society for explanation 
and discussion, subjects which thev have been engaged in studying, 
or which may have came under their notice. Thus it has occurred to 
me that it may interest you, as naturalists, to review the main facts 
relating to the now extinct Manatee or Sea-Cow of the North Pacific. 
The collection of these facts has interested me particularly because, in 
1891, I had an opportunity of visiting the former resorts of the animal 
and of procuring there a number of its bones. This animal is one of 
these forming a very short list in all which have disappeared com- 
pletely within historic times. 
The connection established in the title of my paper between the sea- 
cow and the early Russian explorations in the North Pacific, may 
appear to require explanation, but this explanation is found in the 
circumstance that the extermination of the animal chiefly resulted from 
these explorations, and in the fact that if left to itself, the sea cow, 
though evidently in its decadence would in all probability be still 
reckoned as a member of the living world. 
Everyone here must be familiar with the fact that a principle motive 
in the exploration and occupation of the northern part of North 
America was the trade in furs. Missionary enterprises may have 
actuated many of the early explorers, but some even of the missionaries, 
were not averse to profitable barter ; while in the case of the great fur 
companies, this was the object of their existence. The Hudson's Bay 
Company was early in the field, and after the conquest of Canada the 
Montreal North-West Company superseded the older French trading 
companies, and first in competition with, afterwards in combination 
with the Hudson's Bay Company, pushed its trading posts and stations 
westward to the Pacific Ocean. 
Furs and pelts of many kinds were obtained by these traders, but, 
throughout, the skin of the beaver may be stated to have been their 
