PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 187 



tliose of the latter. On the other hand, those who know him best de- 

 scribe him as the more trustworthj- of the two. 



It will farther be seen that only one of them had seen from what 

 part of the head the water-spout was ejected, and that he said to me 

 exactly the reverse of what is given in Nordenskjold's work. The latter 

 statement was translated for him, but he nevertheless insisted upon 

 the correctness of his present account. The color is also given by Nor- 

 deuskjold as the reverse of what both told me, viz, as light with dark 

 spots. ^ 



JSTordenskjold says further: "That the animal which they saw was 

 actually a sea-cow is clearly proved both by the description of the an- 

 imal's form and way of pasturing in the water, and by the account of 

 the way in which it breathed, its color aud leanness.'' The color and 

 the way of its breathing have been considered above. The statements 

 of both, as given by me, agree in that the animal only dived up aud 

 down, without pastuiiug or eating. And, as to the form, that it "was 

 very thick before, but grew smaller behinfl." The description answers 

 ■ .fully as well, or more so, to a whale as to the shape of the sea-cow, which 

 • Steller describes as having its greatest circumference round the middle 

 of the body. Tlie leanness itself is hardly a diagnostic mark, and we 

 are justified in assuming that the extreme leanness of the sea-cow in 

 the winter, as reported by Steller, first took place later towards the end 

 of the season, as the result of the hardship undergone during the severe 

 winter, aud not at its beginning, as was the case in this instance. That 

 the statement of the animal's appearance before Christmas is correct 

 is evident from the fact that the fox-trapping ends the last day of De- 

 cemVter. 



Finally, Professor Xordenskjold says: 



"As these natives had no knowledge of Steller's description of the 

 animal, it is impossible that their statement could be false." 



It is rather strange that Nordenskjold forgets that a little earlier he 

 had spoken of a man who, according to Nordeuskjold's own statement, in 

 his early days had seen living sea-cows, and who died only seven years 

 ^ (in reality four years) before the conjectured last appearance. Such a 

 scanty description as Xordenskjold has reproduced could easily be 

 made up from his stories and from tradition. But it is moreover a 

 fact that those natives were not unacquainted with the earlier descrip- 

 tions of the animal, as a copy of the plates accompanying Brandt's first 

 '■'' Symholcc Sirenologicce^"^ were sent to the island as soon as published. 

 The drawings were afterwards taken to Sitka. 



In the meantime the statements of the two witnesses agree sufti- 

 ciently to ]>rove that the animal seen was not a sea-cow at all. The 

 liglit color, as to which they agree so remarkably, the descrii)tion of 

 "the fountain," the movements when diving, and the total disappear- 

 ance at last, are points especially conclusive. As to "the fountain,'^ 

 I lay no stress whatever on Stepnoff's statement that it originated 

 from the toj) of the head. His description of the snout of the animaU 



