Dr. J. Murie on the Skin &c. of the Rhytina. 307 



written record describing in tlie flesli that extraordinary animal 

 the Morskaia Korowa, or northern sea-cow, which existed in 

 abundance about a hundred years ago in the neighbourhood 

 of Behring Straits. Few, indeed, are the travellers or hunters 

 who have mentioned, even in a few words, facts concerning 

 this animal when alive. Spite of this paucity of attestation to a 

 sight of the creature, Steller's most excellent description of its 

 appearance, habits, and anatomy has supplied such succinct 

 evidence of the tout enseinble and internal structure as to have 

 long satisfied the needs of zoologists. Still it is to be re- 

 gretted that he only left a couple of sketches of the remark- 

 able horny palatine plates, the jaws being edentulous, of this 

 now extinct Sirenian form. 



Thus rested the knowledge of Rhytina among zoologists 

 and comparative anatomists until the subject was taken up by 

 the eminent savants of St. Petersburg. Between 1836 and 

 1869 a series of papers and memoirs were issued from the 

 hands of Professors K. E. von Baer* and Johan Friedrich 

 Brandtf, which enriched our knowledge of the animal to a 

 wonderful extent. The former elucidated much concerning 

 its geographical distribution. The latter, fortunate in the 

 receipt of a skull, and ultimately a skeleton, worked out well- 

 nigh the complete osteology in a manner deserving the highest 

 encomiums as a perfect model of descriptive skeletal detail 

 and just careful comparison. Not content with only a survey 

 of the bones. Prof. Brandt has summarized the entire structure 

 of Rhytinaj weighed this step by step with the other members 

 of the Sirenia, with Cetacea, and with the Pachydermata, 

 recent and fossil. Finally, he has added to its literary his- 

 tory, to its geographical range, and treated of the hypothesis 

 of transformation amongst the Sirenian family. 



Professor Alexander v. NordmannJ, of Helsingfors, more- 

 over, has contributed a fair monograph on the bone-structures 

 of a specimen which came under his observation. 



* " Untersuchungen liber die eliemalige Verbreitung und die ganzliche 

 Vertilgimg der von Steller beobacbteten nordiscben Seekuh {Rytinn, 

 Ill.)>" l^iih. St. Petersb. 1838, t. iii., and Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. ser. 0, 

 torn. iii. 1840. 



t Of tbis gentleman's numerous papers in the Bulletins and Memoirs 

 of tbe Imperial Academy, it is sufficient for me to quote two as com- 

 prising in tbeir extensive range a perfect mine of wealtb on the subject, 

 and fourteen plates -vsath illustrations of a superb kind : — " Symbolae 

 Sirenologicpe, quibus pmecipue Ebytinpe historia naturalis illustratur," 

 Mem. dAcad. Imp. d. Sci. d. St. Petersb. G« ser. torn. v. 1849; and " Syni- 

 bolse Sirenologica3, fascicidus ii. et iii.," ibid. 1861-68-09, ser. 7, 

 torn. xii. 



J " Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Knochen-Baues der Rhytina Stelleri," 

 1861, aus Acta Soc. Scien. Fennicse, tom. vii. mit 5 litli. Taf. 



