136 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



The sea-cow's pasture is all under water and 

 any lagoon in the district inhabited by these ani- 

 mals might be fenced in by a strong net anchored 

 across one end and would make a novel 

 cattle ranch; but I am afraid that none of our idle 

 rich is possessed with high enough ideals to at- 

 tempt the domestication of any sort of wild animals 

 and if our native creatures are to be saved from 

 annihilation it must be done by the common people 

 through their government or by clubs, and societies 

 of the people formed for that purpose. 



At Behrings and Copper Islands, away up in the 

 cold arctic country, there formerly existed a very 

 large cousin of the manatee, known as the rhytina. 

 When Behring was on the island he had with him 

 an enthusiastic German naturalist by the name of 

 Stella, and it was this German who published the 

 first description of the rhytina. Twenty-seven 

 years after these animals were discovered there 

 was not one left; the crews of the whalers had 

 killed and eaten all the rhytina that there were in 

 the world and wiped this useful food animal com- 

 pletely out of existence, just as the modern whalers 

 are at this very moment killing and eating all the 

 remaining musk-ox in the north country. 



It never occurred to the people in the olden 

 times to leave enough of these animals alive 

 to keep up the stock, and it does not oc- 

 cur to our frontier people today to leave any- 

 thing alive which can be used for fresh 

 meat; that the rhytina might be transported and 



