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GREA T IRISH DEERSTELLERS SEA-CO W. 249 



the destruction wrought by these whalers and fur-hunters that 

 in 1754, only thirteen years after its discovery, the sea-cow had 

 become practically exterminated. In 1768, according to the 

 investigations of Dr. L. Stejneger of the U. S. National Museum, 

 Washington, who has made a most careful study of the question, 

 this large and important marine mammal became wholly extinct, 

 the last individual ever seen alive having been killed in that year; 

 and the fate which overtook Rhytina so speedily has almost 

 become that of the buffalo, and will as certainly become that of 

 the fur seal unless it be protected. 



It may interest the reader, especially if he be a traveller, to 

 know that, besides the fine specimen of Rhytina in the Natural 

 History Museum, already alluded to, good skeletons are pos- 

 sessed by the Museums of St. Petersburg, Helsingsfors (Finland), 

 Stockholm, U. S. National Museum, Washington, as well as 

 portions of skeletons by other museums. 



The Siren ians are an ancient race, for their remains have 

 been found in Tertiary strata, of various ages, from Eocene to 

 Pleistocene, over the greater part of Europe in England, 

 Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy; also 

 near Cairo. In the New World, fossil Sirenians have been found 

 in South Carolina, New Jersey, and Jamaica. 



Another European species is the Halitherium, from the Miocene 

 rocks of Hesse-Darmstadt, of which a eastern ay be seen in the 

 Natural History Museum, South Kensington. Its length is 7 ft. 

 8 in. The teeth in this form resembled those of the Dugong. 



The Rhytina was probably intermediate between the Dugong 

 and the Manatee, judging from the casts of its brain-cavity. 

 Its brain was very small considering the size of the animals. 

 Altogether, as many as fourteen fossil genera and thirty species 

 are known. Evidently, then, the old Sirenia were once a much 

 more flourishing race. At present, they are confined exclusively 

 to the tropical regions of the earth, and their past distribution, 

 as revealed to the geologists, adds one more proof to the now 



