WHALES AND MERMAIDS 311 



In the spring of the year 1880, the female manatee 

 died, after several months' existence in the Aquarium. 

 The history of the male in the subsequent interval may 

 be epitomised in the words '' lie still and grow fat." He 

 evinced no grief at the loss of his companion. 



The dugong and the manatee are the only two mer- 

 maid kinds now existing on the surface of this planet. 

 But a little more than a hundred and twenty years ago 

 there was a third kind, much larger than either of the 

 existing ones, as it attained a length of from twenty to 

 twenty-four feet. It was the Rhytina, and its destruc- 

 tion is one of the few ^veil-attested examples of the 

 extirpation of a species altogether by human agency. 

 When first found it abounded, but very soon it entirely 

 disajDpeared. 



Eastern Siberia was not known to Europeans before 

 the seventeenth century, but in the latter part of it that 

 region came into the possession of Russia, after which 

 it was visited by hunters and j)eopled by emigrants, who 

 hunted the fur-bearing animals to be found there. 



In 1 718 Peter the Great sent a special mission to 

 explore the chain of the Kurile Islands, and a little 

 later, in 1727-29, another expedition set out, under 

 Behring, thoroughly to explore Kamtschatka. Behring 

 returned and made his report, but no such animal as the 

 rhytina is mentioned in it. Some years later, in 1740, 

 Behring visited Kamtschatka again and spent the winter 

 there, having with him the remarkable and energetic 

 naturalist, Steller, too early lost to science. Neverthe- 

 less they did not find the rhytina, and no one else has 

 ever found it there, though large rewards have been 

 offered for its discovery in that country. In 1741, how- 

 ever, Behring went again to the eastern shore of Asia, 

 when he fitted out two ships, in one of which certain 

 individuals embarked, Behring and Steller being of the 



