338 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sixteen feet, was valuable as a resource for the northern tribes, espe- 

 cially the Esquimaux ; the flesh provided very acceptable food, and 

 the skin was of use in making their canoes. The pursuit of the rytina 

 has been followed unceasingly, without the least restraint, and these 

 useful cetacea entirely destroyed ; the last living one was taken in 

 1768. 



The rytina, covered with a bare skin, black in color, and wrinkled 

 like the bark of an oak, had a mustache with hairs as thick as the 

 quill of a pigeon's feather. These harmless animals delighted in herd- 

 ing together, young and old mingled, and a male and female were 

 often seen moving about together, accompanied by their young fam- 

 ily. The rytina usually haunted rather shallow, sandy places, particu- 

 larly near rivers. They fed on various marine plants, showing a 

 preference, however, for a particular kind of sea-w^eed. The animals 

 were often seen browsing as they swam slowly, or walked along the 

 bottom, stepping leisurely, like cattle in the fields, and, when satis- 

 fied, coming to the shore to lie on their backs. Sometimes in the 

 winter they would be caught and confined under the ice, and die for 

 want of air, their bodies afterward washing ashore. This explains 

 the ease with which, even now, great quantities of the bones of these 

 herbivorous cetacea of Behring's Islands are collected. All that we 

 know of this animal's history has been handed down to us by the 

 memoir of a naturalist and physician, Steller, published in I'/Sl. He 

 accompanied Behring on his voyage to the northwest of America. 

 After the wreck of the ship, followed by the death of the commander 

 and the greater part of his crew, Steller remained on the islands, to 

 which he gave the name of the Russian navigator, till the sailors 

 escaped from the wreck had built a vessel out of the fragments of the 

 ship, which gave them the means of reaching Kamtchatka. Yery 

 lately, Russian zoologists have made all possible efibrts to rediscover 

 Steller's rytina, but all the labor of their researches has been fruitless. 

 They have only succeeded in procuring some of the animal's bones, 

 and in 1861 the savants of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Helsingfors, 

 had the satisfaction of receiving almost entire skeletons, sent to the 

 governor of the Russian- American possessions, which gave an oj^por- 

 tunity for important studies on the osteology of this singular cetacean 

 by Brandt and ISTordmann. 



11. 



The losses suffered by birds have been different, and far more seri- 

 ous than those of mammals ; various species, highly remarkable either 

 for great size, or for almost exceptional peculiarities in conformation, 

 have completely disappeared. As to some, the fact is certain, and 

 the presumption is strong as to others. Incapable of flight, and con- 

 fined to islands, these birds could not escape the attacks of men, and 

 men have exterminated them. 



