y 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 the
sea-cow in the only original account of the first hunting voyages of
the Russians to the Aleutian Islands, which was published at Hamburg
and Leipzig in 1776 with the title, _Neue, Nachrichten von denen
neuentdeckten Insuln in der See zwischen Asien und Amerika, aus
mitgetheilten Urkunden und Auszuegen verfasset von J.L.S._**
(Scherer).[363] In this book the sea-cow is mentioned at the
following places:--

"Ivan Krassilnikoff's vessel started first in 1754 and
arrived on the 8th October at Behring Island, where all the
vessels fitted out for hunting the sea-otter on the remote
islands are wont to pass the winter, in order to provide
themselves with a sufficient stock of the flesh of the
sea-cow" (_loc. cit._ p. 38).

"The autumn storms, or rather the wish to take on board a
stock of provisions, compelled them (a number of hunters
sent out by the merchant Tolstyk under command of the
Cossack Obeuchov) to touch at Commander's Island (Behring
Island) where, during the winter up to the 24th/13th June,
1757, they obtained nothing else than sea-cows, sea-lions,
and large seals. They found no sea-otters this year."
(_ibid_ p. 40).

"They (a Russian hunting vessel under Studenzov in 1758)
landed on Behring Island to kill sea-cows, as all vessels
are accustomed to do." (_ibid_ p. 45).

"After Korovin in 1762 (on Behring Island) had provided
himself with a sufficient stock of the flesh and hides of
the sea-cow for his boats.... he sailed on" (_ibid_ p. 82).

In 1772 DMITRI BRAGIN wintered on Behring Island during a hunting
voyage. In a journal kept at the request of Pallas, the large marine
animals occurring on the island are enumerated, but not a w