307 



THE STELLERUS. 



GENUS STELLERUS. CUVIER. 



Having a single and peculiar kind of tooth in each jaw ; paws 

 without any appearance of nails ; skin remarkably thick and hard. 



Stellerus Borealis, Desm. Less. Manatus Steller, Pen, Maskaia, 

 or Sea- Cow of the Russians. 



THERE is, perhaps, less known of this animal than 

 of any of its congeners : scarcely any thing has 

 been added to our information since the publication 

 of Steller's account,* so that some have been led to 

 entertain doubts of its existence. Such scepticism, 

 however, is quite unwarrantable, after the patient 

 labours of the celebrated naturalist of the Rurick. 

 Something like a corroboration of Steller's account 

 may, we think, be found in " Cook's Voyages." The 

 celebrated navigator, whea dwelling upon one of 

 the Fox Islands, at no great distance from Behring's 

 Straits, after mentioning the Seals and Walrus 

 there encountered, adds " We sometimes saw an 

 animal with a head like a Seal's, which blew after 



See Nov. Comment. Acad. Petrop. t. ii. p. 294. 



