574 



MANATIS AND DUGONGS. 



The Northern Sea-Cow. 



Genus Rhytina. 



On his return in 1741 from a voyage of discovery to Alaska, the navigator 

 Behring had the misfortune to be shipwrecked on the island which now bears his 

 name ; that island, together with the adjacent Copper 

 Island, constituting the Commander group, which lie in 

 Behring Sea, at a distance of about one hundred miles from 

 the coast of Kamschatka. At the time of their involuntary 

 sojourn, Behring and his companions found the shores of 

 these islands inhabited by a hitherto unknown animal, evi- 

 dently allied to the manati, but of much greater dimensions. 

 This creature was the northern sea-cow {Rhytina stelleri), 

 then found in vast numbers on the islands in question, but 

 which within a period of thirty years from that date appears 

 to have been totally exterminated by the hand of man. 

 Indeed, had it not been for the fortunate circumstance that 

 Behring was accompanied by the naturalist Steller, we 

 should probably never even have heard of the very exist- 

 ence of this animal, except through some slight mention 

 in the accounts of certain contemporary voyagers. Unfor- 

 tunately, no skins and only some imperfect skeletons of the 

 animal appear to have been preserved by the survivors of 

 Behring's party ; but of late years, a considerable number 

 of more or less imperfect skeletons have been reclaimed 

 from the frozen soil of the Commander Islands. 



This gigantic Sirenian differed from all its allies in 

 having no teeth, the functions of which were performed by 

 the horny plates covering the palate and opposing surface 

 of the lower jaw. The head was very small in proportion 

 to the body ; and the extremities of the jaws were some- 

 what bent downwards. The tail was forked, after the 

 manner of that of the dugong. The flippers were very 

 small and truncated, and were covered with bristly hairs. 

 Steller expressly states that there were no bones in the 

 hand ; and it is certain that none have hitherto been found. 

 The skin was naked, and covered with a thick, rugged epi- 

 dermis, which was compared to the bark of a tree ; in places 

 this epidermis was an inch in thickness, and so tough that 

 it required the use of an axe to cut it. The skin, according 

 to Steller 's description, was dark brown in colour, sometimes 

 marked with streaks or spots of white. A drawing of the animal left by Waxell, 

 the navigator of Behring's party, represents it, however, as being marked with 

 alternate dark and light transverse stripes. The skeleton herewith figured 

 measures 19J feet in length, which would indicate a length of about 20 feet in the 



