15 



II. — NOEDMANN ON StELLER's MaNATEE. 



Beiteage zirii Kej^ntniss des Knochex-eatjes dee Ehytina 

 Stelleei, Yon Dr. Alex. v. Nordmann. Acta Soc. Sc. Pennicse, 

 Vol. Yii. Helsingfors, 1861. 



The publications of the Einnish Society of Sciences are bo little 

 known in this country that we are sure our readers will thank us for 

 some notice of the paper of which the title is above given, although 

 it appears to have been published several years ago. The communi- 

 cation referred to contains an account of a newly discovered 

 skeleton of the remarkable Sirenian Bliytina Stelleri, from tlie pen of 

 Dr. Alexander v. Nordmann, the learned Professor of Zoology in the 

 Imperial University of Helsingfors. 



This large marine animal, formerly so abundant on the coasts of 

 Bering's Island has, as is well knoAvn, now quite disappeared from the 

 surface of the globe as a living animal, and even the date of the 

 destruction of the last individual of the race has been ascertained 

 with exactness.* 



The original account of the Northern Sea-cow by Steller, which was 

 published at Petersburg in 1751,t long remained our only authority 

 on the subject, and for many years subsequently no specimen, nor 

 even any portion of a specimen, of the Bhytina was known to exist 

 in any collection. In 1832, Professor Brandt found among the 



* The last Rhytina was killed in 1768, according to Saner, the Secretaiy of 

 Captain Billings' expedition. We may remark, that Professor Owen (Paleontology, 

 p. 400), states that the extinction of this animal "does not appear to have 

 been due to any special quest and persecution by man." This is, however, 

 directly contrary to the conclusions ariived at by v. Baer in his learned article 

 upon this subject, (Untersuchungen iiber den Nordischen Seekuh — Mem. Acad. 

 S. Pet. vi. Ser. 1840, iii. p. 53, et seq.) Steller, who first discovered the 

 Rhytina during Bering's second expedition in 1741, when ten months were passed 

 upon Bering's Island, the only spot where this remarkable animal is known 

 to have existed in recent times, estimated its numbers as then so large as to be 

 sufficient to feed the whole population of Kamtschatka. But the hunters and 

 adventurers following in Steller's track along the chain of the Aleutian Islands, 

 who were in the habit of wintering in Bering's Island; and of provisioning their 

 ships with these animals, made such havoc with them, that, as we are informed by 

 Sauer, in his narrative of Billing's expedition, which remained five years in these 

 seas, from 1789 to 1793, they were at that time totally extinct, the last known 

 individual having been killed in 1768. 



t De Bestiis marinis, auctore G. W. Steller, Nov, Coram. Petr. xi. p. 294, 

 (1751). 



