314 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



whose meat the hungry wolves stole in the 

 most audacious manner. Even more were 

 slaughtered for their skins, which, though not 

 taking high rank as furs, had a market value 

 that made the chase worth while. The final 

 blow at the Antarctic wolf was struck by 

 the Scotch settlers, whose sheep suffered so 

 severely from its attacks that the farmers were 

 not long in poisoning the remnant of the wolf 

 population. Reports of survivors were brought 

 home by travellers long after the creature was 

 extinct, but these were in every case dis- 

 proved. 



Steller's sea-cow, a gigantic cousin of the 

 manatee and dugong, was first butchered to 

 feed the shipwrecked crews of Behring's expe- 

 dition in search of the North-West Passage, 

 and Steller was the naturalist and doctor 

 on board the explorer's ship. Other sailors 

 and hunters then slaughtered the unfortunate 

 creature, which was compelled to visit the 

 shallow creeks in order to browse on the 

 seaweeds that it could not find in the deeper 

 water, and the result was that the last was 

 seen alive in 1854. Here, then, we have three 

 animals, of very different haunts and habits, 

 exterminated by man during the nineteenth 

 century. Two of them furnished food, and 

 the third came under the head of vermin ; and 

 it is, apart from his love of sport, with one or 



