PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. IB^ 



his SOU was born, and that consequently the latter hardly has any 

 recollection of stories told earlier than the seventy-third year of his 

 father ; further, that he was only 23* years of age when his father died, 

 and that in 1879 (the year in which Nordenskjold visited the island) 

 thirty-seven years had passed, it will not be unreasonable to suppose^, 

 that the statement of the father of what he had heard about the sea- 

 cows, shortly after his arrival at the island, in the course of so long: 

 time, inteutionally or unintentionally, took such a form as if he had 

 seen the sea cow himself. Or, it may well have been, that Yasilij,. 

 who arrived four years after the last sea-cow was killed, and conse- 

 (juently durirg his early residence must have heard many accounts 

 about this remarkable animal, retold them so often, that at last he even 

 convinced himself that he had shared in the interesting events! It may 

 be that, being a fur-hunter and adv^entnrer, he possessed a touch of the 

 Ijragging tendency common to those people, so as not to be especially 

 liarticular about such trifles, as to report himself as an eye-witness, even 

 if it was not literally true, and, as everybody knows, a story thus receiv- 

 ing weight and authority is much more interesting than one merely re- 

 corded at second-hand. Besides, it is not to be overlooked, that there 

 was nobody living on the island who could contradict him. 



That we are justified in interpreting his statement in the manner 

 above indicated is, moreover, evident from the fact that Dmitri Bragin, 

 who wintered on Bering Island ihe mmc year Vasilij arrived there 

 (1772), and kept a journal during his stay at the request of Pallas, emi- 

 merates all the large sea-mammals of the island, iHth the exception of 

 the sea coii\ To an unprejudiced mind this would seem to prove that 

 the animal not only was exterminated at that time, but had been extinct 

 for some years. 



And now I think we are through with the first evidence. 



About the sea-cow which, according to Nordenskjold, was said to have 

 been seen about the year 1854, 1 made a thorough investigation, with 

 the kind assistance of Mr. Chernick. I have given it below verbatim. I 

 need hardly say, that both witnesses were examined separately, so that 

 the one should not know the statements of the other. The questions 

 were written down beforehand, and so constructed that they would give 

 no clue to the answer ; they were asked exactly as they are written, 

 and the witness was given ample time for a well-considered answer. 

 Without taldiif/ precautions of this hind, it ivouJd be comparatively easy to 

 (jet such i)eople to answer a question in the maimer one might desire. 



I theu first examined Xicanor Pauloff Stepnoff, a Creole, 58 years old, 

 and asked him as a first question : 



Question 1. In what year did you see the sea-cow? 



Answer. I do not remember the time exactly, but it was when Gut- 

 koff * was the agent of the station. 



* I am informed by Mr. Volokitiri, that Giitkoff left the island in 1817, and that the 

 so-called sea-cow was seen in 1S46, tlic year before he liimself (Y.) arrived there. As. 

 already stated, I know Mr. Volokitin sufficiently to acce^it his statements as correct. 



