XV.] 
THE SEA-COW. 
273 
disturbed in the least by the presence of man. One might even 
touch them without their being frightened or disturbed. They 
entertained great attachment to each other, and when one was 
harpooned the others made incredible attempts to rescue it. 
When Steller came to Behring Island, the sea-cows pastured 
along the shore, collected like cattle into herds. The ship¬ 
wrecked men, for want of suitable implements, did not hunt 
them at first. It was only after a thoughtless love, of slaughter 
had driven all other animals suitable for food far from their 
winter quarters, that they began to devise means to catch the 
sea-cow also. They endeavoured to harpoon the animal with a 
strong iron hook made for the purpose, and then drag it to land. 
The first attempt was made on the 1742, but it was un¬ 
successful. It was not until after many renewed attempts that 
they at last succeeded in killing and catching a number of 
animals, and dragging them at high water so near land that they 
were dry at ebb. They were so heavy that forty men were 
required to do this; we may conclude from these particulars that 
the number of sea-cows killed during the first wintering on 
Behring Island was not very large. For the first one was killed 
only six weeks before the shipwrecked men left the island, and 
the hunting thus fell at a time when they could leave the build¬ 
ing of the vessel to occupy themselves in that way only in case 
of necessity. Besides, only two animals were required to yield 
flesh-food to all the men for the period in question. 
It is remarkable that the sea-cow is so mentioned by later 
travellers only in passing, that this large animal, still hunted by 
Europeans in the time of Linnaeus, would scarcely have been 
registered in the system of the naturalist if Steller had not 
wintered on Behring Island. What Krascheninnikov says of the 
sea-cow is wholly borrowed from Steller, and in the same way 
nearly all the statements of later naturalists as to its occurrence 
and mode of life. That this is actually the case is shown by the 
following abstract, complete as far as I know, of what is said of 
VOL. IT. 
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