236 DESCRIPTION OF BERING ISLAND 



strong tendinous membrane and are situated at the back, as in 

 birds, for which reason it [the sea cow] can remain longer under 

 water without drawing breath. In the third place it has no gall 

 bladder, but only a wide gall duct after the fashion of horses; 

 also its stomach and entrails have some similarity to the intes- 

 tines of a horse; and, finally, the kidneys, like those of [sea] calves 

 and [sea] bears, are composed of very many small kidneys, each 

 of which has its own ureter, pelvis, traps [?],i^^and papillae, and 

 they weigh 30 pounds and are 2]/^ feet long. From the head of 

 their manati the Spaniards are said to take out^^^a stone-hard 

 bone, which among druggists goes under the erroneous name of 

 lapis manati. This I have vainly searched for in so many ani- 

 mals that I have come to think ^^^ that our sea cow may be a 

 different kind of these animals.^^ Moreover, it has caused me no 

 little wonder that, notwithstanding that I made careful inquiry 

 about all animals while in Kamchatka before my voyage and 

 never heard anything about the sea cow, nevertheless after my 

 return I obtained the information that this animal is known from 

 Cape Kronotski to Avacha Bay, and that it is occasionally 



17* The MS has "Fallen," plural of "Falle," a trap; Pallas' version 

 has "Fallklappe," a trap board or trap door. There being no valves, 

 it is possible that Steller by "Fallen" meant the renal calyces. In his 

 "De bestiis marinis," p. 318, the word arteriole, little artery, takes its 

 place, and in a separate sentence the pelvis [renalis] is said to be "as in 

 the elephant." 



175 Instead of "are said to take out" the MS reads "are in the habit of 

 taking out." 



176 The MS here has in addition "that the climate may be the cause 

 of it or" etc. 



177 In the MS the sentence is concluded with "especially since the 

 inquiring Dampier mentions two kinds at the island of St. Ferdinand." 

 The island is called John Fernando by Dampier: Juan Fernandez in the 

 South Pacific is meant. This statement of Steller's rests apparently on 

 a mistaken remembrance of Dampier's account, who (A New Voyage 

 Round the World, 3rd edit., London, 1698, p. 90; Masefield edit., 1906, 

 Vol. I, p. 118) on the island of Juan Fernandez found, besides seals, 

 onlv the sea lion, but not the manatee. 



