PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 181 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF THE COMMANDER ISLANDS. 



No. 2. — Inyestigations Relating to the Date of the Exterm- 

 ination OF Steller's Sea-cow. 



By l.KO:VHARI> STEJIVEGER. 



Prof. A. E. Nordeuskjold in " The Voyage of theYega" (New York, 

 18<S2, pp. (306 — G08) lias given an account of the researches made by him 

 on Bering Island, in order to throw light on the history of the extinction 

 of the Northern Sea-cow {Rytina gigas), and from information obtained 

 there, he thinks it ^^ proved" that the statement of v. Baer and Brardt, 

 that the Sea-cow became completely exterminated twenty-seven years 

 after the discovery by Steller, or in 1768, is " undoubtedly incorrect." 

 He even adduces "evidence" that "the death-year of the Ehytiua race 

 mnst be altered at least to 1854." 



As to this latter statement, it was remarked in my preliminary report 

 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. YI,, 1883, p. 84*) that I was compelled to re- 

 gard it as erroneous, the promise being made at the same time to give 

 my reasons based upon a thorough investigation, the detailed account 

 of which is the object of the present paper. 



It is proper, however, to remark at the outset, that it is a more or less 

 hazardous business to draw scientific conclusions from statements like 

 those made to Professor Nordenskjold. In matters of this kind and 

 so remote in time the memory of the natives is rather dull, and most of 

 them have but faint ideas respecting the exact time and sequence of 

 events much nearer the present times than those here in question. I 

 should deem it unadvisable, even if nothing else pointed against Nor- 

 denskjold's conclusion, to reject precise evidence almost contempora- 

 neous with the event, because of such vague testimony. 



As to the first proof of Professor Nordenskjold, viz, the statement of 

 a Creole, 67 years of age, that his father, who died in 1847 at the age of 

 88, and who at the age of 18 (therefore in 1777), came to Bering Island, 

 during the first two or three years of his stay there, that is, till 1779 

 or 1780, saw sea-cows feeding on sea-weed, my investigations have 

 given somewhat different results, and I therefore quote my conversa- 

 tion with the same man in the very words taken down by me from his 

 own mouth. f 



" Pitr Yasilijef Burdukovskij says that he was born in 1819, and is 

 therefore now (1882) 64 years old.J Having been asked why, in 1879, he 



*Iii this place an important typographical error has occurred, the word "natives" 

 iu the fifth line from ahove having been erroneously used instead of " latter." 



t In order to avoid errors on account of my rather imperfect knowledge of the Rus- 

 sian language, the kind assistance of Mr. Chernick, the agent of Hutcliinson, Kohl, 

 Philippeus & Co., was secured. 



t In the oJiicial list of the natives, his age is given as (il ; this prohaldy, however, 

 hcing a mistake. Ili.s stateraeut above aeems to be correct, because he jiretends to 

 remember from his childhood the A'isit of Admiral Lutke on the island iu 1828, what 

 woull hardly be probable, if he at that time had been only 6 years of age. 



