140 STELLER'S JOURNAL 



near shore In the water, [animals] which I had never before seen 

 and even now could not well make out as they lay all the time 

 half in the water, but concerning which my cossack asserted that 

 they were known nowhere in Kamchatka,^^^ and likewise since 

 nowhere any tree or shrubbery was to be seen, I began to doubt 

 that this was Kamchatka, especially as the sea sky over in the 

 south indicated sufficiently that we were on an island surrounded 

 by the sea.^so 



Toward noon I returned to the hut and after dinner decided 

 to go with Mr. Plenisner and our cossack westward along the 

 beach in order to search for forests or small timber; we found 

 nothing whatever, but saw a few sea otters and killed various 



819 The MS is somewhat differently worded regarding the manati: 

 "and moreover, since I saw the many manati near shore, which I had 

 never seen before nor could know what kind of sea animal it was because I 

 saw one half all the time under water, and as my cossack, to the question 

 whether this were not the plebun or the makoai of the Kamchadals, 

 about which I had only gathered verbal information, replied that this 

 animal occurs nowhere in Kamchatka," etc. 



Plevun, according to Pallas (Zoogr. rosso-asiat.. Vol. i, 1811, p. 287), 

 is the Russian name for the sperm whale. In the form "pla-un" it is 

 used by the present inhabitants of the Commander Islands for one of the 

 ziphoid whales {Berardius hairdii Stejneger; see Proc. U. S. Natl. Mu- 

 seum, Vol. 6, 1883, p. 76). Steller, in his "Beschreibung von dem Lande 

 Kamtschatka," 1774, p. 105, has this to say on the plevun: "Man hat 

 noch ein grosses Seethier, so einem Wallfisch gleichet, aber kleiner und 

 in der circumferenze nach Proportion viel dinner ist, dieses nennen die 

 Russen Morskox Woik [morskoi volk], einen Seewolf ; die Italmen [natives 

 of Kamchatka] Plebun." (There is another large marine animal, which is 

 like a whale, but smaller and proportionately much less in girth. The 

 Russians call it morskoi volk, a sea wolf; the Itaelmens, plebun.) 



Makoai, also according to Pallas (op. cit.. Vol. 3, 1831, p. 63), is the 

 Kamchadal name for the large shark occurring in the waters off the east 

 coast between Capes Kronotski and Lopatka. This may be the Somniosus 

 microcephalus (Bloch), which is said to occur in Bering Sea, or Lamna 

 cornubica (Gmelin), which has been taken in Avacha Bay. (S) 



320 After the words "that this was Kamchatka" the MS reads: "[and 

 to think] rather that it might be an island, wherein the sea-sky over in the 

 south confirmed me still more [in my conviction] that the land was not 

 wide and therefore was an island everywhere surrounded by water." 



