OCEANIC MAMMALS 537 



very fact that sea-cows had now become so nearly exterminated 

 that the few left were insufficient to maintain any wintering 

 and foraging expedition. " The animals were harpooned from 

 eight-oared boats or attacked by individual hunters who would 

 stealthily approach one lying close inshore or in shallow water, 

 and "wound it mortally by thrusting the iron-shod pole into it. 

 The animal, which was hardly ever killed outright, sought the 

 high sea and died there. If it drifted ashore the same day, 

 well and good; but in most cases it came in unfit to be eaten, 

 if it was not carried away altogether. So impressed was 

 Jakovleff with the extreme wastefulness of this method that 

 he predicted the speedy extermination of the sea-cow unless 

 some precautions be taken against this senseless slaughter." 

 Within thirteen years the result turned out as he expected! 



As Stejneger (1887) points out, "there can hardly be any 

 doubt that these animals were the last survivors of a once more 

 numerous and more widely distributed species, which had been 

 spared to that late date because man had not yet reached their 

 last resort. It is, then, pretty safe to assume that this colony 

 was not on the increase and that, under the most favorable 

 circumstances, the number of" surviving young ones barely 

 balanced the number of deaths caused by the dangers of the 

 long winters. Under this supposition, every animal killed by 

 a new agency in this case by man represents one less in the 

 total number. " Slow and of stationary habits, unsuspicious, 

 and without means of defense or escape, its disappearance, 

 Stejneger asserts, "was simply due to man's greed." Brandt 

 (1846) in his monograph writes: "Stupiditas animalis summa 

 fuit!" 



Steller's sea-cow (Hydrodamalis stelleri) 



