TROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 185 



Answer. It was whitish [hjele, perhaps more correctly, lightj, about 

 the same color as this table, [the table had a yellowish leather color; 

 I now showed to him a scale of colors, and on this he, without hesita- 

 tion, pointed 07it a quite light shade of " burnt umber," adding that the 

 animal was], densely sprinkled with round blackish spots, which were 

 about G inches long. 



Question IG. How long" do you estimate the animal to have been? 



Answer. About as long as this room [14 feet], or perhaps six fathoms 

 [about 18 feetj. It was so lean that we could see all the bones. 



Question 17. What did it eat? 



Answer. We did not see it eat ; we only saw that it came up and 

 went down three times. 



Question 18. Does " lapusta^^ [sea-weed] occur at that place? 



Answer. Ko ; there is very deep water. 



Question 19. Did the animal then swim away from you ? 



Answer. Yes ; when it dived the third time, we saw the last of it. I 

 would have shot at it, but it did not come to the surface again, although 

 we were waiting for a long time. We even returned to Tolstoj in order 

 to try to get sight of it again, but without result. 



Question 20. Could you see far over the sea from the place where you 

 were standing? 



Answer. We could see over the sea both along the coast and out 

 ahead as far as the eye could reach, but without seeing it any more. 



I now placed before him the figure of the sea-cow accompanying 

 Brandt's book, about which he made the remark that the nose was too 

 blunt and short, it being on the animal seen by him protracted into a 

 snout " similar to that on the skeleton of the sea cow." 



Postponing my remarks till I have finished the examination of both 

 witnesses, I take the liberty to introduce the second one, Fedor Ivanoff 

 Merschenin, Aleut, and Gl years of age. 



As the very same questions were proposed to him, it will only be nec- 

 essary to refer to their number. Besides, in the following account his 

 answers are filled so as to be easily understood without direct com- 

 l^arison with the questions. 



Answer 1. Does not remember the year — not even approximately. 

 [Examining him more minutely, I gained the information that his son, 

 who now is 36 years of age, at the time was quite a baby. It is here 

 to be remarked that his statement was extremely uncertain, and that 

 the age of the son, being taken from the census of the island, is subject 

 to serious doubt.] 



Answer 2. At the Nepropusk between Tolstoj Mys and Tschigatschi- 

 ganakh [the Aleutian name of a small creek between Tolstoj and Ko- 

 mandor, sometimes called in Russian Nepropuski Reschka]. 



Answer 3. During the fox-trai)ping season, late in the year, probably 

 a Aveek before Christmas [old style; about Christmas, new style]. I re- 

 member very well that there was snow on the ground. 



