SEA ANIMALS 245 



otters or bosop,^ sea lions or sibiicha,^ sea bears or kot,^° as Dam- 

 pier calls them, sea dogs," sea cows or manati, all kinds of sea 

 birds and plants. We brought back nine hundred sea otter skins, 

 of which I alone received eighty as my share. These animals 

 and their characteristics I have described ^2 [^ 5^^^ a manner 

 that it will be impossible to add anything, because, so to speak, 

 we had constant intercourse with them, at all times and of all 

 ages. I only regret that I was not able to make real anatomical 

 observations; these were impossible in our dark underground huts 

 and, without adequate assistance, because of the size of these 

 animals. 



The Channel between Kamchatka and America is not over 

 forty to fifty miles in width and full of islands on which such an 

 abundance of sea animals is to be met with that from them the 

 costs of the most expensive expedition could be regained without 

 much trouble in a few years. These sea animals live on the 

 islands in large numbers and in security just like land animals, 

 because since the beginning of the world they have never seen a 

 human being or been disturbed. I would not exchange the ex- 

 perience of nature that I acquired on this miserable voyage for 

 a large capital, and I regret that, owing to the lack of a ship, I 

 was not able to bring to Kamchatka my collections, rare skele- 

 tons, and skins [exuvia]. For my part I did not spend an idle 

 moment: I refer Your Highness to my detailed description of the 



8 This may be a misreading of Steller's handwriting, as the Russian 

 word for sea otter is bobr. 



9 The word is written in Russian sivuch. 



10 Strictly morskoi kot, sea cat, i.e. the fur seal. Dampier (work cited 

 in Appendix A above, p. 229, footnote 145) nowhere calls the fur seal 

 kot, although he discusses seals in various passages. Probably in copying 

 Steller's letter this phrase became displaced from its original position. 

 It probably read "sea bears or kot, sea dogs, sea cows or manati, as 

 Dampier calls them." This would correspond to the facts (see, above, 

 p. 229, footnote 14s). 



11 i.e. seals. 



12 In Steller's "De bestiis marinis" (see, above. Appendix A, p. 222, 

 asterisk footnote preceding footnote 123). 



