THE VAKIOUS EXPEDITIONS. 179 



The eared seals put in their appearance on the Com- 

 mander Islands in the spring, and are found in the rook- 

 eries by the hundreds of thousands until August or Sep- 

 tember. They proved of the greatest importance for the 

 support of the shipwrecked expedition, and after the sea- 

 otter for a circuit of many miles had been driven away, 

 they furnished a part of the crew's daily means of 

 sustenance, 



But the most interesting animal on Bering Island 

 was the sea-cow ( Rhytina Stelleri),^ a very large and 

 ponderous animal from eight to ten meters long and 

 weighing about three tons. It was related to the 

 dugong and lamantine of the southern seas, and the 

 manatus which occurs in Florida and along the Gulf 

 coast. Its habitat seems to have been confined to the 

 shores of the Commander Islands, where it was found 

 in great numbers. Its flesh was very excellent food. 

 Later it was eagerly sought after by the Siberian 

 hunter, whose rapacity exterminated the whole species 

 in less than a generation. The last specimen is said 

 to have been killed in 1768, and hence museums have 

 been very unsuccessful in procuring skeletons of the 

 animal. In his ''^Voyage of the Vega,^^ Nordenskjold 

 attempts to show that sea-cows were seen much later, 

 even as late as 1854 ; but as he bases his assumption 

 chiefly on the statements of some Aleutian natives, 

 who, according to what Dr. Leonhard Stejneger re- 

 cently has proved, confounded the sea-cow with a 

 toothed whale (denticete), there seems to be no reason 



*The correct name of this animal, Dr. Stejneger informs me, is 

 Rhytina gigas.—Tn, 



