1887] The Extermination of the Great Northern Sea- Cow. 1053 
while from Jakovleff’s diary it seems evident that all the meat 
_ was eaten. This is an additional reason why no weight should 
_ beattached to the rest of Burdukovski’s story. 
_ Now, to supply the six hundred and seventy men which we 
— know wintered on Bering Island between 1743 and 1763, during 
an average time of ten months, it required, in round figures, 
about two hundred and fivé animals. According to the same 
_ method of calculation, we find that the four hundred men who 
hid in provisions for protracted journeys would require about 
_ two hundred and ninety animals for an average time of twenty- 
: four months,—together, four hundred and ninety-five animals. 
i Iffive times as many cows were wantonly killed as were utilized, 
_ Wehave a grand total of two thousand four hundred and seventy- 
five sea-cows slaughtered up to the year I 763, or nearly one 
_ thousand in excess of our estimate of the original number. e 
Gü therefore either admit that there were more than two thou- 
_ Sand living sea-cows when Steller discovered them, or else that 
k only twice as many animals were wasted as were properly util- 
ied; but, whatever conclusion we choose, it is manifest that 
f- 
our estimates have been very reasonable. 
; * least, the records contain nothing definite that I am a 
— come so nearly exterminated that the few left were insufficient 
‘ to maintain any wintering and foraging expedition, while, at the 
3 ‘ame time, the fur-bearing animals were also so badly decimated 
ony to hunt them. The 
erate when left undis- 
Ned for a few years, and it was probably by a party who went 
ut to Bering Island in 1767 or 1768—possibly on one of Popoff’s 
us hat the last sea-cow was 
Mm 1772, Dmitri Bragin 
m the fact that in the 
e island he omitted the sea-cow, 
S reasonably safe to conclude tHat not one was left to 
"corded by him. 
as r all, there is nothing surprising in the speedy Bere 
~" of this clumsy animal, which could not dive, and which ha 
‘ually no means of defence or escape. It is too well known 
did not emigrate, and the theory that 
+ 
it was driven off to 
æ 
