1052 The Extermination of the Great Northern Sea-Cow. (Dec, 
men, in order to obtain food, had to secure their sea-cow single- 
handed, and whenever they got an opportunity—what they often 
did—they would sneak up to an animal lying close to the shore 
or in shallow water, and wound it mortally by thrusting the iron- 
shod pole into it. The animal, which was hardly ever killed 
outright, sought the high sea and died there. If it drifted ashore 
the same day, well and good; but in most cases it came in unfit 
to be eaten, if it was not carried away altogether. So impressed 
was Jakovleff with the extreme wastefulness of this method that 
he predicted the speedy extermination of the sea-cow unless 
- some precautions be taken against this senseless slaughter; and 
. when, in 1755, he returned to Kamtschatka, he presented a pe- 
tition to the authorities there that it be prohibited by an ukas to 
kill sea-cows in this manner, “in order that Bering Island may 
not be devastated in the same manner as Copper Island.” Of 
course, nobody heeded this eminently wise suggestion, and the 
result became as he had predicted it: the last sea-cow was kill 
within thirteen years, 
Can anybody who contemplates the fact that the sea-cow wa 
an exceedingly stationary animal, which was bound to the kelp- 
fields near shore; that it was extremely stupid and sluggish; 
that it was deprived of the faculty of diving; and that the island 
offers absolutely no shelter or concealment for it,—can anybody, 
after having read Jakovleff’s report and petition, possibly enter- 
tain a doubt that the last specimen of the genus Rytina was slain 
by the harpoon of the hunter ? 
But let us attempt a calculation, based upon the 
; d 
as to the original number of living sea-cows when Bering Islan 
f 
3 
former guess 2 
presented | 
: 
_ was first visited, and ‘upon the facts as they have been ber of 
above. Before doing so we will have to estimate the e made : 
‘ d 
animals wastefully slaughtered, and from the stateme ie 
by Jakovleff I should think it no exaggeration to say pare 4 
were killed five times as many animals as were actually 7 A 
From Jakovleff’s report we learn that one sea-coW would th, aad- 
_ food sufficient for thirty-three men during a whole ae 4 
although it is probable that he made his party utilize €a e the 
mal in a higher degree than the other hunters, we shall ta 
above figures as indicating the average. It will 
do not take into account Burdukovski’s statement, ar hearsay. 
were eaten, for he only had his knowledge from’ 
