y, but if its large beautiful tail be struck once
it turns its head to its pursuer, as if to offer it as a
mark for his club in place of the tail. If it eludes an
attack it makes the most laughable gestures to the hunter.
It looks at him, placing one foot above the head as if to
protect it from the sunlight, throws itself on its back,
and turning to its enemy as if in scorn scratches itself on
the belly and thighs. The male and female are much attached
to each other, embrace and kiss each other like men. The
female is also very fond of its young. When attacked she
never leaves it in the lurch, and when danger is not near
she plays with it in a thousand ways, almost like a
child-loving mother with her young ones, throws it
sometimes up in the air and catches it with her fore-feet
like a ball, swims about with it in her bosom, throws it
away now and then to let it exercise itself in the art of
swimming, but takes it to herself with kisses and caresses
when it is tired."

According to recent researches the _sea-otter_, sea-beaver or
Kamchatka-beaver (_Enhydris lutris_, Lin.) is a species neither of
the otter nor the beaver, but belongs to a peculiar genus, allied to
a certain extent to the walrus. Even this animal, unsurpassed in the
beauty of its skin, has been long since driven away not only from
Behring Island but also from most of the hunting-grounds where it
was commonly killed by thousands, and if an effective law be not
soon put in force to keep the hunting in bounds, and check the war
of extermination which greed now carries on against it, no longer
with clubs and darts but with powder and breechloaders, the
sea-otter will meet the same fate which has already befallen
Steller's sea-cow. Of the sea-lion (_Eumetopias Stelleri_, Lesson),
which in Steller's time were found in abundance on the shore cliffs
of Behring Island, there are now only single animals there along
with the sea-bears (_Otaria ursina_, Lin.); and finally, the most
remarkable of all the old mammalia of Behring Island, the great
sea-cow, is completely extinct.

_Steller's sea-cow_ (_Rhytina Stelleri_, Cuvier) in a way took the
place of the cloven-footed animals among the marine mammalia. The
sea-cow was of a dark-brown colour, sometimes varied with white
spots or streaks. The thick leathery skin was covered with hair
which grew together so as to form an exterior skin, which was fu