558 



THE SEA COWS. 



maxillary bone. A similar plate is placed on the 

 lower jaw. The lower lip forms a thick bulbous 

 roll, sharply defined behind. The nostrils lie on the 

 upper surface of the snout, are placed close together 

 and form two crescent-shaped slits; the eyes are 

 small, of ovoid shape, but strongly arched and of 

 black hue; they lie in an oblique slit, surrounded by 

 lashes along its upper margin, devoid of true lids, 

 but furnished with a winking membrane, and can 

 be closed at will by a muscle which produces con- 

 traction of the skin ; the ears are only indicated 

 by small roundish apertures. The skin is of a dull 

 leaden or bluish gray color, marked with dark lon- 

 gitudinally arranged spots; it is smooth and shining, 

 wrinkled only on the abdomen and overgrown with 

 short, thin and stiff bristles, which nearly develop 

 into spines on the upper lip. The fins are perfectly 

 naked. The dentition consists of rootless incisors 

 and molars, part of which fall out in old age. Canine 

 teeth are lacking; the male, however, develops two 

 of its front teeth into tusks, measuring from eight to 

 ten inches in length and nearly an inch in thickness; 

 they are covered by the gums for about seven-eighths 

 of their length. 



Habitat and Habits It seems that the Dugong is caught 

 of the Du- in all parts of the Indian Ocean and 

 gong. t ne regions communicating with it. 



It occurs all over the southern Chinese seas, and off 

 the coasts of Sulu, Banda and Sunda; towards the 

 north it extends to about the middle of the Red Sea. 

 In this last locality it is a very well-known animal. 

 All sailors have seen it, and one will hardly question 

 any of them in vain about the Nakhe el Bahr (Camel 

 of the water). In the east it inhabits the coast of 

 New Guinea and Queensland, as far southward as 

 Moreton Bay. 



The Dugong frequents the sea, and in exceptional 

 cases the fresh water of the estuaries, but not the 

 rivers themselves; it prefers the neighborhood of 

 coasts and proceeds only as far from shore as the 

 submarine vegetation extends. Its favorite haunts 

 are shallow inlets in which the sun shines through 

 the calm waters to the very bottom and the pro- 

 fuse vegetation of the sea can develop with par- 

 ticular luxuriance. It does not frequent the land; at 

 least it may be inferred that Dugongs found lying on 

 the shore have been left by the ebb-tide, and being 

 too lazy to push their heavy bodies back into the 

 water, prefer to wait until the next high tide. From 

 the bottom of shallow creeks the Dugong rises to 

 the surface about once a minute, thrusts out its nose 

 or sometimes half its body, breathes and slowly 

 sinks back into the deep. 



The fishermen say that the Dugongs usually live 

 in couples and rarely in small families; but this 

 statement applies better to the Arabian Gulf than to 

 other parts of the Indian Ocean, where they are said 

 sometimes to have been seen in schools. The Ara r 

 bian fishermen say that one always finds at least two 

 Dugongs together in the Red Sea, but not infre- 

 quently as many as ten. 



THE SEA COW. 



"Along the whole beach of the island, especially 

 where little streams flow into the sea and all kinds 

 of sea-plants are most plentiful, one finds at all sea- 

 sons great herds of Sea Cows, which our Russians 

 call Morskaia Korova. As the Sea Otters had been 

 scared away from the northern coast and the obtain- 

 ing of provisions began to become difficult, we 



thought of catching these animals and using them 

 for food as presenting an easy way out of our diffi- 

 culty, because they were near to us. To this end 

 the jolly-boat was repaired towards the end of June, 

 as it had been badly damaged on the rocks in fall; a 

 harpooner, a steersman and four oarsmen were 

 placed in it; and each was given a harpoon and a 

 rope, coiled as are ropes used in whaling, the other 

 end being held on the beach by the remaining forty 

 Men. The sailors quietly rowed up to the animals, 

 which were grazing in herds along the banks at the 

 bottom of the sea, deeming themselves in perfect 

 security. As soon as the harpooner had securely 

 buried his weapon in the body of one, the Men on 

 the beach gradually pulled it ashore; those in the 

 boat approached it in the meanwhile, exhausting it 

 still more by the wounds they inflicted, and when it 

 seemed quite spent they dealt it other wounds with 

 large knives and spears, so that it lost nearly all its 

 blood, which streamed out of the wounds in jets; 

 then it could be pulled ashore during flood tide and 

 there secured. When the ebb came, and the animal 

 lay on dry land, we cut the flesh and fat off in pieces 

 and carried them to the dwelling-places, amidst great 

 rejoicing, the flesh being stored away in large barrels 

 and the fat hung on high posts. It was not long 

 before we saw ourselves surrounded by such plenty 

 of food that we could uninterruptedly go on with 

 the construction of our new boat, which was to be 

 our means of escape." 



The naturalist, Steller, who was shipwrecked in 

 November, i74i,on the previously unknown Behring 

 Island, where he spent ten dreary months, thus be- 

 gins his description of one of the most remarkable 

 of marine mammals, a creature which seems to have 

 been completely exterminated, and has been named 

 the Sea Cow, Rhytina, or after its discoverer, Steller- 

 ine (Halicore stellerii). Allured by the accounts of . 

 the Russian exploring party to which Steller be- 

 longed, whalers and foolhardy adventurers flocked 

 to Behring Sea in great crowds and there com- 

 menced so terrible a slaughter among the defense- 

 less dwellers of the ocean that the Sea Cows were 

 exterminated from the face of the globe. All later 

 endeavors to procure at least one of these animals 

 have been in vain. Every ship bound for Behring 

 Sea has had its instructions concerning them, but 

 none has brought one back with it. It is supposed 

 that the last was killed in 1768 by an expedition 

 under Popoff. Nordenskjold, however, who visited 

 Behring Island in 1879, is inclined to place the date 

 of the final extinction of the tribe in the year 1854. 



Steller believed the Sea Cow to be the Lamantin 

 discovered by Hernandez. His description shows 

 clearly, however, that the Sea Cow was a very differ- 

 ent creature from the remainder of the Sirenia. The 

 jaws were covered with grinding plates, instead of 

 teeth connected only with the gums. This feature 

 alone suffices to characterize the animal. "The 

 largest of these animals," says Steller, " are from 

 twenty-four to thirty-three feet long, and about 

 twenty-three feet in girth at the stoutest place. I 

 estimate the weight to be about forty-eight thou- 

 sand pounds. The fat is not oily or flabby, but 

 hard and glandular, white as snow, and after lying 

 a few days in the sun it assumes an agreeable yel- 

 lowish tint like that of Dutch butter. Boiled, it 

 surpasses the best beef suet in sweetness and flavor; 

 when melted, it is like fresh olive oil in hue and 

 freshness, and like sweet almond oil in taste." 



