NOEDMANN ON STELLEe'S MANATEE. 17 



Imperial Museum received further specimens of the RJiytina. These 

 consisted of a complete cranium as well as of several occipital bones, 

 ribs, and other parts of the skeleton. A few years later, Professor 

 Brandt was so fortunate as to obtain through the Eusso-American 

 Company, a nearly complete skeleton, and a second not quite so 

 perfect was procured through the same agency by M. Simachko. 

 These materials have served as a basis for Professor Brandt's second 

 Memoir on the Sirenia, which, if published, appears not yet to have 

 been received in this country. 



In the meanwhile, however, we have Dr. Alexander von Nord- 

 mann's Essay, describing a nearly complete skeleton of the Bhytina, 

 received by the Zoological Museum of Helsingfors under the fol- 

 lowing circumstances. Dr. Nordmann's fellow-countryman, Captain 

 Furuhjelm, having been appointed Governor of Eussian- America, 

 was earnestly besought to try to obtain a skeleton of the Bhytina 

 for the Museum of his National University. In 1861, Captain 

 Furuhjelm succeeded in accomplishing this — a specimen of the 

 much desired object having been dug up in Bering's Island by two 

 Aleutians — and wrote home to his friend that he had forwarded the 

 same by water " along with other trifles." The skeleton thus received 

 is described as being that of an immature individual — measuring 

 16^ feet in length.* The only parts deficient are the hand-bones, 

 some of the caudal vertebrae, and the epiphyses of the shoulder blade, 

 humerus, ulna, and radius. There seems no question that the rest of 

 the skeleton must all have belonged to the same individual. All the 

 bones were obtained in the same spot from the earth, and show no 

 trace of Balanus, Serpulce, or other marine product. As Professor v. 

 Nordmann observes, had an expert been present he would probably 

 have found the missing portions likewise. 



Professor von Nordmann gives in his paper an elaborate account 

 of every portion of these precious relics, and illustrates his descrip- 

 tions with five lithographic plates, which represent all the more 

 characteristic parts, as also the whole skeleton reduced to one 

 fifteenth of its natural size.f 



* Steller gives the length of the adult Bhytvm as 296 English inches = 24 ft. 

 8 inches. 



f Professor v. Nordmann, states (p. 17 of his Paper), that '' Bhytina, as Steller 

 rightly remarks, possesses only six cervical vertebrae." Brandt in his paper referred 

 to by Mr. Flower, (Nat. Hist. Rev. 1864, p. 259), says there can be no doubt 



N.H.R.— 1865. C 



