XV. 1 THE SEA-OTTER AND THE SEA-COW. 559 



run away when any one approached. A dear-bought experience, 

 however, soon taught them caution ; at all events, from 800 

 to 900 head were taken, a splendid catch when we consider 

 that the skin of this animal at the Chinese frontier fetched 

 from 80 to 100 roubles each. Besides, in the beginning of 

 winter two whales stranded on the island. The shipwrecked 

 men considered these their provision depots, and appear to 

 have preferred whale blubber to the flesh of the sea-otter, 

 which had an unpleasant taste and was tough as leather.^ 



In spring the sea-otters disappeared, but now there came to 

 the island in their stead other animals in large herds, viz. 

 sea-bears, seals, and sea-lions. The flesh of the young sea- 

 lion was considered a great delicacy.^ When the sea-otters 

 became scarcer and more shy and difficult to catch, the ship- 

 wrecked men found means also to kill sea-cows, whose flesh 

 Stelier considered equal to beef. Several barrels of their flesh 

 were even salted to serve as provisions during the return 

 journey. As the land became clear of snow in the middle of 

 April, Waxel called together the forty-five men who survived 

 to a consultation regarding the steps that ought to be taken 

 in order to reach the mainland. Among many different proposals, 

 that was adopted of building a new vessel with the materials 

 supplied by the stranded one. The three ship-carpenters who 

 liad been on board were dead. But fortunately there was 

 among the survivors a Cossack, Sava Starodubzov, who had 

 taken part as a workman in shipbuilding at Okotsk, and 

 now undertook to manage the building of the new vessel. 

 With necessity for a teacher he also succeeded in executing 

 his commission, so that a new St. I'eier was launched on the 

 '^ August, 1742. The vessel was forty feet long, thirteen 

 feet beam, and six and a half feet deep, and sailed as well 

 as if built by an experienced master of his craft, but on the 

 other hand leaked seriously in a high sea. The return voyage 

 at all events passed successfully. On the "^sfhAu'Sst Kamchatka 

 was sighted, and two days after the St. Peter anchored at 

 Petropaulovsk, where the shipwrecked men found a store- 

 house with an abundant stock of provisions according to their 



1 According to Miiller, whose statements (based on communications by 

 Waxel?) often differ from those of Stelier. The latter says that the fiesli 

 of the sea-otter is better than that of the seal, and a good antidote to 

 scurvy. The flesh of the young sea-otter might even compete with lamb 

 as a delicacy. 



- To judge by what is stated in Steller's description of Behring Island 

 (.Yewe nord. Btytr., ii. p. 290) no one would have dared to attack " diese 

 grimmigen Thiere," and the only sea-lion eaten during the winter was an 

 animal "wounded at Kamchatka and thrown up dead on the coast of 

 Behring Island. The tin-like feet were the most delicate part of the sea- 

 lion. 



