136 NATURAL HISTOEY OP AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



occurred within a comparatively short time without the intervention of man. The fact that in 

 Steller's time the range of the animal was much circumscribed, seems to give weight to the latter 

 view. 



The range of the Sea-cow, when discovered by Europeans, seems to have been confined to 

 Bering and Copper Islands, but the investigations of Brandt show that it probably extended 

 from Nishne-Kamtchatka or the bay of Karaguescensi to the coast of China and included also the 

 outermost islands of the Aleutian Archipelago. Sailer's statement that " Sea-Cows were very 

 common on Kamtchatka and on the Aleutian Islands, when they were first discovered," seems with- 

 out foundation, and is properly rejected by Nordenskiold. Whether the Sea-cow ever occurred on 

 the Aleutian Islands appears somewhat uncertain. Vosnessenski found a rib of the animal on 

 Attu, the last island of the archipelago, but, as Brandt suggests, it may have been derived from a 

 Rhytina washed thither by the waves. Mr. Lucien Turner kindly informed me that an aged Aleut 

 woman stated that Rhytina had been seen at Attu by her father, but such testimony is, perhaps, 

 not altogether satisfactory. 



