16 THE 3TATUEAL HISTORT REYIEW. 



treasures of tlie St. Petersburg Museum, one of tlie singular lioriiy 

 palatine plates of the Bhytina, and described and figured it as a molar 

 tootli,* supposing it to be a modification of that organ. This 

 discovery induced the learned Professor to take every means in 

 his power to have the former habitat of the Rliytina ransacked, 

 in order to obtain further portions of its remains. Baron "Wrangel, 

 who was then commencing his celebrated explorations in North- 

 eastern Asia, aud whose ardent zeal in favour of the Natural Sciences 

 is well known, only succeeded in obtaining some fragments of the 

 ribs of the missing animal, together with the information that 

 the huge beast was certainly utterly extinct. But a few years 

 later, Mr. Wosnessenski, who was sent out to the Eusso- American 

 colonies in 1839, to collect specimens of Natural History for the 

 Zoological Museum, succeeded in disinterring portions of a cranium 

 of the Rhytina from the soil of Bering's Island. This precious 

 fragment served as the material for Professor Brandt's learned 

 treatise, published in Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburg 

 in 184i9,f in which a complete history of the Rliytina, including all that 

 was then known of its structure and habits, and a full discussion of 

 its place in the Natural System is given. The conclusions arrived at 

 by Professor Brandt, correspond nearly to those of De BlainvilleJ 

 and Owen§ — namely, that the Sirenia constitute an order of 

 Mammals, quite distinct from the Cetacea, and in some characters 

 more nearly allied to the Pachyderms. As regards the subdivisions 

 of the Sirenia, Professor Brandt clearly points out the remarkable 

 characters which divide the Bhytina from Halicore and Manatus. 

 These he considers necessitate the subdivision of the Sirenia into 

 two tribes — the first of which, embracing the two latter genera, 

 he calls " Sirenia Dentigera sen Halicorea." The latter, containing 

 only the toothless Rliytina, he names " Sirenia Edentata seu 

 Ehy tinea." 



Shortly after the publication of this Essay, as we learn from a 

 notice in the Bulletin of the Academy of St. Petersburg, || the 



* Ucbcr den Zahnban dcr Stellerschen Seekuh. Mem. Acad. St. Pet. vi. Ser. 

 Sc. Math. ii. p. 103. 



t SjTnboloe Sirenologicce quibus prascipue Rhytinfe historia naturalis illustratur. 

 Mem. Acad. St. Pet. Sc. Nat. v. (1849). 



X Osteographie, Vol. iii. Genus Manatus. 



§ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1838, p. 45, et aliis locis. 



II Bull. Acad. Imp. Sc, St. Pet. iv. p. 30.5, 



