168 



THE EXTINCTION OP ANIMALS. 



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Beliriiig and his party were 

 ■wrecked on Beliring Island, 

 where they remained for some 

 ten months, it does not ajjpear 

 that they inflicted much damage 

 on the sea-cows ; but soon after, 

 various fur-hunting expeditions 

 were fitted out to Alaska, the 

 members of which deioended 

 solely on these animals for food. 

 So incessant, indeed, was the 

 jjersecution of the unfortunate 

 creatures, that by 1754 they had 

 been exterminated on Copx^er 

 Island, while by 1763 nearly all 

 had lieen killed on their other 

 haunt, and the last individual of 

 their race is sujjposed to have 

 perished either in 1767 or the 

 following year. Up to 1883 three 

 skeletons in foreign collections 

 and a few ribs in the British 

 Museum were all that remained 

 of the rhytina ; but since that 

 date numerous remains have 

 been obtained from the peat of 

 Behring Island. Fortunately, 

 the excellent description left by 

 Steller, and some drawings which 

 have come down to us from the 

 navigator of Behring's party, 

 give us a very good idea of the 

 external form of the giant sea- 



Continuing our chronological 

 survey, the next exterminated 

 animals that claim our atteu- 

 tiou are the gigantic land 

 tortoises of the Mascarene 

 Islands, that is to say Mauri- 



