THE RYTINA. 



449 



waters. Whole herds of these animals may be seen sporting near the shores, diving at intervals 

 to procure food, and rising again in order to breathe. They are most affectionate creatures, 

 and if one of a pair be captured, the other falls an easy prey to the pursuers, as it refuses to 

 leave the fatal spot, and will rather suffer itself to be killed than forsake even the dead body 

 of its late partner. 



There are several species of Dugong, which are all very similar in habits, although they 

 vary in size. One species has been known to attain to the length of twenty-six feet. The skull 

 of these animals is very singularly formed, the upper jaw being bent downward over the lower 

 jaw, and terminated by two large incisor teeth. It is supposed that the object of this structure 

 is to assist the animal in gathering together and dragging up by the roots the algae and other 

 subaqueous vegetation on which it feeds. 



The skin of the Dugong is capable of being manufactured into various useful articles, and 

 the flesh is in some repute, being said to bear close resemblance to veal. 



DUGONG- Halicore dugong. 



A third genus of these herbivorous cetaceans is the Rytina, which is supposed to be now 

 extinct, the last known specimen having been killed in 1768, only twenty-seven years after the 

 creatures were discovered. 



The Rytina possessed no true teeth, and masticated its food by means of two bony plates, 

 one of which was attached to the front of the palate, and the other to the lower jaw. It was a 

 large animal, measuring about twenty-five feet in length, and nearly twenty feet in circum- 

 ference. The Rytina was discovered in the year 1741 on an island in Behring's Strait; and 

 as the animals w T ere large, heavy, and unarmed, they were most valuable in affording food to 

 the unfortunate sailors who were shipwrecked upon that island, and were forced to abide 

 there for the space of ten months. When the islands were visited by ships in search of sea- 

 otters, which abounded in that locality, the crews found the Rytinas to be so valuable and so 

 easy a prey that the entire race was extirpated in a few years. 



The only account of the Rytina is that which was furnished by Steller, one of the ship- 

 wrecked party, who, undaunted by the terrible privations which he was forced to undergo, 

 wrote an admirable description of the animal, which was afterwards published in St. Petersburg. 



