ANIMALS RECENTLY EXTINCT. 625 



Soon after the return of the survivors of Bering's party to Kamchatka, 

 expeditions were fitted out for the purpose of wintering - on the Comman- 

 der Islands and hunting fur-bearing animals, the great northern sea cow 

 offering an abundant supply of fresh meat, a great desideratum in those 

 days, when scurvy was one of the greatest and most common dangers en- 

 countered by navigators. The first expeditions were followed by others, 

 the rytina being relied upon to furnish the bulk of the provisions, and 

 vessels sailing for the northwest coast of America were also accustomed 

 to stop at Bering Island for the purpose of laying in a supply of salted 

 sea-cow. At that date there were no cattle in Kamchatka to furnish 

 either fresh or salted provisions, so that the rytina was a veritable god- 

 send to the fur-hunters who improved their opportunities to the utmost. 

 As Dr. Stejueger has shown, it is a matter of record that between 

 1743 and 1763 nineteen parties of from thirty to fifty each wintered 

 on Bering Island, while others are known to have wintered on 

 Copper Island, and still others simply touched there for supplies. 

 During their stay these parties lived on fresh rytina, while a large 

 part of their occupation consisted in killing and salting down the ani- 

 mal for future use. Small wonder is it that a helpless creature of re- 

 stricted range and slow reproduction should have succumbed rapidly 

 to the systematic attacks of man. This slaughter of the sea-cows must 

 have resulted in their extermination, even had it been carried on with 

 the utmost care, but the end was hastened by the method of capture 

 employed by the small parties of hunters who were scattered along the 

 northern and eastern shores, and were compelled to attack and kill the 

 huge beast single-handed. Ordinarily the rytina was taken by the 

 harpoon from an eight-oared boat, the animal after a short struggle 

 being towed ashore and dispatched, but the fox hunters used to cau- 

 tiously approach the creature while lying in shallow water and endeavor 

 to mortally wound it with a lance thrust. It naturally happened that 

 comparatively few would be killed outright, the majority escaping to 

 deep water, there to die of their wounds, and later on to drift ashore, 

 where the body would be found by the hunters. Some, of course, 

 would never reach the shore, while others would be recovered after 

 such a lapse of time as to be unfit for food, the more that the rytina 

 spoiled so rapidly that if not properly cared for within twenty-four hours 

 after death the flesh was worthless. By 1754, only nine .years after the 

 discovery of the island, the sea-cow had become extirpated on Copper 

 Island, and by 1763 was probably nearly exterminated on Bering 

 Island, as from that time on records of visits to the place are rare. 

 According to the careful estimates of Dr. Stejueger there were not 

 more than fifteen hundred to two thousand rvtiiias about the island at 

 the time of its discovery, there being hardly more than fifteen suitable 

 feeding places, so that the work of extermination was not difficult. 

 The last individual of the race was killed in 1707 or 1768, and although 

 Professor Nordenskjold imagined he had discovered evidence that a 

 H. Mis. 224, i>t. 2 10 



