84 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
short time must have been fatal to all. As to the story reported by 
Professor Nordenskjéld (Vega Exped., Am. ed., p. 606) about an ani- 
mal seen by two natives still living here, all the residents competent 
to form an opinion think that he has been deceived. After the inves- 
tigations made by myself I have little doubt that the natives are right. 
1 find it proper, however, not to publish any details until I shall have 
returned to Washington. 
As tothe geographical range of the sea-cow, I have only afew remarks 
to make. Itecan scarcely be doubted that it at least occasionally must 
have occurred on Copper Island. Besides, this is positively affirmed 
by Mr. Osche, who saw bones there (cfr. ‘* Vega Exped.”), an observa- 
tion, corroborating my own experience. When Professor Nordenskjéld 
(op. cit., Amer. ed., p. 605) remarks that the sea-cow does not appear to 
have ever occurred on the Aleutian Islands his statement is contra- 
dictory to the information which my friend Lucien M. Turner has re- 
ceived from the natives on Attu.* It would be especially interesting to 
know whether the statement of the natives, ‘ that a number of bones 
much heavier than other bones, or more like ivory in weight, are to: be 
found on Semitkhi and Agattu,” is true or not.t Itis very difficult to see 
why they should not have occurred on the other Aleutian {slands, as the 
natural conditions there are the same as here on Bering Island, and the 
sea-weed, on which the sea-cow fed, is as plentiful there as itis here, or even 
more so (cfr. the statement of Wosnessenski in Ruprecht, ‘‘Tauge des 
Ochotsk Meeres,” Midd. Sibir. Reise. I, 2 p. 202). On the other hand, 
the probability of their occurence, even occasionally, in the more north- 
ern parts of Bering Sea (Nordenskjold, op. cit., p.591) seems to be very 
slight, owing to the scanty marine flora in these waters (Ruprecht, op. 
cit., p. 203). I have been informed that a certain Mr. Neumann has 
published in the Journal of the Geographical Society of Irkutzk an 
account that he had found bones of the sea-cow on the Chukeh penin- 
sula, which bones are said to have been deposited in the museum at 
Irkutzk. Furtherinquiries proved, however, that the bones were bought 
by him here on Bering Island. Fortunately, they were destroyed by 
the great fire in the museum. 
* An account of which, I suppose, is now printed in his report. 
t Information which I have received from a man bornon Attu, but now living here, 
confirms this statement to a certain degree. Of course, he knows the bones of the 
sea-cow very well, and he has told me that similar bones, also skulls, occurred on 
Agattu. But he expressly added, that they were smaller than the bones found here. 
Neither he, nor another man from Attu, who, besides, did not know anything about 
the occurrence of such bones on Agattu, nor any of the other Aleuts here, chiefly 
from Atkha, have ever heard the Aleutian name Awkh-sikh-tikh, given by Mr. Tur- 
ner. May, it, perhaps, have been a smaller kind? Any one familiar with these bones 
will hardly confound them with bones of either seals or whales. The stories of the 
natives about living animals in the time of their fathers is probably not more to be 
depended upon than-‘the similar story which was told Professor Nordenskjéld here 
on Bering Island. 
