steller's account of the sea cow. 181 



same way as geese and swans, so that there they may get rid of their fat, copulate, 

 aud give birth, and when that is done they return home in the same way as birds. 



The amphibious Bieluga, a most voracious animal, selects those places where there 

 are long inlets of the sea; they generally wander about very widely, where they can 

 drive the fishes together and devour them more quickly in larger numbers — such, 

 places as are at the mouth of the Ud and Ochotsk and the arm of the sea at the mouth 

 of the river Olutora. The walrus, from his love of ease, seeks out desolate and unin- 

 habited places, and because of his fatness selects a cold place in the midst of ice, and 

 because he finds these conditions at any time of the year at the mouth of the river 

 Obi, Yenisee, Lena, and Kolima, and around Cajje Tschutschi, he is fond of those 

 regions. The right whale [balaena), because it is fond of peace, chooses those parts 

 of the sea less frequented by ships, and since those places are for the most part in the 

 north, whales live there and select those regions for sleep, for giving birth to their 

 young, and for breeding. 



Accordingly, the reason why other amphibious animals inhabit not all but only 

 some certain regions of the ocean, must be looked for in the nature of the animals 

 themselves. For some the food that they eat, for others their love of ease, for others 

 still different characteristics fix their boundaries and determine their dwelling-places. 



But all sea animals have something, either in appearance or in habits, in common 

 with land animals, on account of which even at first sight they are compared by the com- 

 mon people to these animals, and thus get their names. So the host of natural philoso- 

 phers talk about bulls, horses, wolves, aud, dreaming of allegories, bring in monks and 

 other men. It has seemed to me worth mentioning that Ruthenian sailors when they 

 first saw the manatee called it '■'■Korova Morslcaia,^' with exactly the same propriety as 

 the English and Dutch called it a "sea-cow;" '^ Sivtitcha^^ they called "sea-lion," and 

 '' Kot," " sea-bear." Not noticing the criteria ottered by nature, they less approi)riately 

 called the "sea otter" ^^ Bobr Morskoi.'" But all these animals became known only half 

 a century ago; in fact, Marcgraf makes mention of the sea otter, but somewhat brietiy 

 and obscurely. The navigator Dampier, a tireless explorer, speaks of the sea lion and 

 the sea bear; and many learned men, and Dampier as well, mention the manatee. 

 But I must admit that the accounts given by the scholars are fragmentary and imper- 

 fect and for the most jjart fabulous and false. Dampier, on the other hand, has by 

 many parasangs excelled them with a most accurate description, as good as could 

 be expected from an unlearned man. 



But one must not suppose that these places do not contain more great and won- 

 derful animals that are still unknown, besides those which I shall describe. For if 

 weather, time, and place had favored my desire I should have enriched natural history 

 with many curiosities of that sort, as indeed I desired when I took the risk of this 

 journey to parts so distant and unexplored. Thus, for instance, I describe the traces 

 of a certain unknown animal upon the island of Shuraagin, and I insert a sketch of a 

 sea ape, and with this imperfect account I must content myself and others. 



In what order I shall next year examine the shores of the sea near the mouth of 

 the river Kolima time will tell. My zeal is fired by those mammoth skeletons and the 

 slight accounts of them. And I do not doubt that the American shores are to become 

 better known to us, and with them this wonderful subject as well. As long as things 

 escape us and perish unknown with our consent, and through our silence are counted as 

 fabulous — things which may be seen with little labor in the very land where we, with all 



