TATTOOING PATTERNS, FROM ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND.TATTOOING PATTERNS, FROM ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND.1, 2. Face tattooing. 3. Arm tattooing.(After drawings by A. Stuxberg.)
tribes; otherwise it would be difficult to explain how Kotzebue's sailors could in half an hour purchase at a single encampment 200 coats of this kind. At the time of our visit all the natives went bareheaded, the men with their black tallow-like hair clipped to the root, with the exception of the common small border above the forehead. The women wore their hair plaited and adorned with beads, and were much tattooed, partly after very intricate patterns, as is shown by the accompanying woodcuts. Like the children they mostly went barefooted and barelegged. They were well grown, and many did not look ill, but all were merciless beggars, who actually followed our naturalists on their excursions on land.
TATTOOED WOMAN FROM ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND.TATTOOED WOMAN FROM ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND.(After a drawing by A. Stuxberg.)
The summer-tents were irregular, but pretty clean and light huts of gut, stretched on a frame of drift-wood and whale-bones. The winter dwellings were now abandoned. They appeared to consist of holes in the earth, which were covered above, with the exception of a square opening, with drift-wood and turf.During winter a sealskin tent was probably stretched over this opening, but it was removed for the time, probably to permit the summer heat to penetrate into the hole and melt the ice, which had collected during winter on its walls. At several tents we found large under-jaws of whales fixed in the ground. They were perforated above, and I suppose that the winter-tent, in the absence of other framework, was stretched over them. Masses of whale-bones lay thrown up along the shore, evidently belonging to the same species as those we collected at the shore-dunes at Pitlekaj. In the neighbourhood of the tents graves were also found. The corpses had been placed, unburned, in some cleft among the rocks which are split up by the frost, and often converted into immense stone mounds. They had afterwards been covered with stones, and skulls of the bear and the seal and whale-bones had been offered or scattered around the grave.
North-east of the anchorage the shore was formed of low hills rising with a steep slope from the sea. Here and there ruinlike cliffs projected from the hills, resembling those we saw on the coast of Chukch Land. But the rock here consisted of the same sort of granite which formed the lowermost stratum at Konyam Bay. It was principally at the foot of these slopes that the natives erected their dwellings. South-west of the anchorage commenced a very extensive plain, which towards the interior of the island was marshy, but along the coast formed a firm, even, grassy meadow exceedingly rich in flowers. It was gay with the large sunflower-likeArnica Pseudo-Arnica, and another species of Senecio (Senecio frigidus);theOxytropis nigrescens, close-tufted and rich in flowers, not stunted here as in Chukch Land; several species of Pedicularis in their fullest bloom (P. sudetica, P. Langsdorfii, P. OederiandP. capitata); the stately snow auricula (Primula nivalis),and the prettyPrimula borealis. As characteristic of the vegetation at this place may also be mentioned several ranunculi, an anemone (Anemone narcissiflora), a species of monkshoodwith flowers few indeed, but so much the larger on that account, large tufts ofSilene acaulisandAlsine macrocarpa, studded with flowers, several Saxifrages, two Claytoniæ, theCl. acutifolia, important as a food-plant in the housekeeping of the Chukches, and the tenderCl. sarmentosawith its delicate, slightly rose-coloured flowers, and, where the ground was stony, long but yet flowerless, slightly green tendrils of the favourite plant of our homeland, theLinnæa borealisDr. Kjellman thus reaped a rich harvest of higher plants, and a fine collection of land and marine animals, lichens and algæ was also made here. The ground consisted of sand in which lay large granite blocks, which we in Sweden would call erratic. They appeared however not to have been transported hither, but to be lyingin situ, having along with the sand probably arisen through the disintegration of the rocks.
In the sea we found not a few algæ and a true littoral evertebrate-fauna, poor in species indeed, something which is completely absent in the Polar seas proper. As I walked along the coast I saw five pretty large self-coloured greyish-brown seals sunning themselves on stones a short distance from land. They belonged to a species which I had never seen in the Polar seas. As there was no boat at hand, I forbade the hunters that accompanied me, though the seals were within range, to test their skill as shots upon them. Perhaps they were females ofHistriophoca fasciata, whose beautifully marked skin (of the male) I had seen and described at St. Lawrence Bay. The natives had a few dogs but no reindeer, which however might find food on the island in thousands. Nokayakswere in use, but largebaydarsof the same construction as those of the Chukches.
St. Lawrence Island was discovered during Behring's first voyage, but the first who came into contact with the natives was Otto von Kotzebue[353](on the 27th June 1816, and the 20th July
1817). The inhabitants had not before seen any Europeans, and they received the foreigners with a friendliness which exposed Kotzebue to severe suffering. Of this he gives the following account:—
"So long as the naturalists wandered about on the hills I stayed with my acquaintances, who, when they found that I was the commander, invited me into their tents. Here a dirty skin was spread on the floor, on which I had to sit, and then they came in one after the other, embraced me, rubbed their noses hard against mine, and finished their caresses by spitting in their hands and then stroking me several times over the face. Although these proofs of friendship gave me very little pleasure, I bore all patiently; the only thing I did to lighten their caresses somewhat was to distribute tobacco leaves. These the natives received with great pleasure, but they wished immediately to renew their proofs of friendship. Now I betook myself with speed to knives, scissors, and beads, and by distributing some succeeded in averting a new attack. But a still greater calamity awaited me when in order to refresh me bodily they brought forward a wooden tray with whale blubber. Nauseous as this food is to a European stomach I boldly attacked the dish. This, along with new presents which I distributed, impressed the seal on the friendly relation between us. After the meal our hosts made arrangements for dancing and singing, which was accompanied on a little tambourine."[352]
As von Kotzebue two days after sailed past the north point of the island he met threebaydars. In one of them a man stood up, held up a little dog and pierced it through with his knife, as Kotzebue believed, as a sacrifice to the foreigners.[355]
Since 1817 several exploring expeditions have landed on St. Lawrence Island, but always only for a few hours. It is very dangerous to stay long here with a vessel. For there is no known haven on the coast of this large island, which is surrounded by an open sea. In consequence of the heavy swell which almost constantly prevails here, when the surrounding sea is clear of ice, it is difficult to land on the island with a boat, and the vessel anchored in the open road is constantly exposed to be thrown by a storm rising unexpectedly upon the shore cliffs. This held good in fullest measure of theVega'sanchorage, and Captain Palander was on this account anxious to leave the place as soon as possible. On the 2nd August at three o'clock in the afternoon we accordingly resumed our voyage. The course was shaped at first for Karaginsk Island on the east coast of Kamchatka, where it was my intention to stay some days in order to get an opportunity of making a comparison between the natural conditions of middle Kamchatka and the Chukch Peninsula. But as unfavourable winds delayed our passage longer than I had calculated on, I abandoned, though unwillingly, the plan of landing there. The Commander's Islands became instead the nearest goal of the expedition. Here theVegaanchored on the 14th August in a very indifferent harbour completely open to the west, north-west, and south, lying on the west side of Behring Island, between the main island and a small island lying off it.
FOOTNOTES:
[344]The enmity appeared, however, to be of a very passive nature and by no means depending on any tribal dislike, but only arising from the inhabitants of the villages lying farthest eastward being known to be of a quarrelsome disposition and having the same reputation for love of fighting as the peasant youths in some villages in Sweden. For Lieut. Hooper, who during the winter 1848-9 made a journey in dog-sledges from Chukotskoj-nos along the coast towards Behring's Straits says that the inhabitants at Cape Deschnev itself enjoyed the same bad reputation among their Namollo neighbours to the south as among the Chukches living to the westward. "They spoke another language." Possibly they were pure Eskimo.
[345]There is still in existence a sketch of a tribe, living far to the south on the coast of the Indian Sea, who at the time of Alexander the Great used the bones of the whale in a similar way. "They build their houses so that the richest among them take bones of the whale, which the sea casts up, and use them as beams, of the larger bones they make their doors. Arrian,Historia Indica, XXIX. and XXX.
[346]These strata were discovered during Kotzebue's cucumnavigation of the globe (Entdeckungs Reise, Weimar, 1821, i. p. 146, and ii. p. 170). The strand-bank was covered by an exceedingly luxuriant vegetable carpet, and rose to a height of eighty feet above the sea. Here the "rock," if this word can be used for a stratum of ice, was found to consist of pure ice, covered with a layer, only six inches thick, of blue clay and turf-earth. The ice must have been several hundred thousand years old, for on its being melted a large number of bones and tusks of the mammoth appeared, from which we may draw the conclusion that the ice-stratum was formed during the period in which the mammoth lived in these regions. This remarkable observation has been to a certain extent disputed by later travellers, but its correctness has recently been fully confirmed by Dall. On the other hand, the extent to which the strong odour, which was observed at the place and resembled that of burned horns, arose from the decaying mammoth remains, is perhaps uncertain. Kotzebue fixed the latitude of the place at 66° 15' 36". During Beechey's voyage in 1827 the place was thoroughly examined by Mr. Collie, the medical officer of the expedition. He brought home thence a large number of the bones of the mammoth, ox, musk-ox, reindeer, and horse, which were described by the famous geologist Buckland (F. W. Beechey,Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Behring's Straits, 1825-28. London, 1831, ii. Appendix).
[347]Further Papers relative to the recent Arctic Expedition, etc.Presented to both Houses of Parliament. London, 1855, p. 917.
[348]Graphite must be found in great abundance on the Asiatic side of Behring's Straits. I procured during winter a number of pieces, which had evidently been rolled in running water. Chamisso mentions in Kotzebue's Voyages (iii. p. 169) that he had seen this mineral along with red ochre among the inhabitants at St. Lawrence Bay; and Lieut Hooper states in his work (p. 139), that graphite and red ochre are found at the village Oongwysac between Chukotskoj-nos and Behring's Straits. The latter colour was sold at a high price to the inhabitants of distant encampments. These minerals have undoubtedly been used in the same way from time immemorial, and they are probably, like flint and nephrite, among the few kinds of stone which were used by the men of the Stone Age. So far as is known, graphite come first into use in Europe during the middle ages. A black-lead pencil is mentioned and delineated for the first time by Conrad Gessner in 1565. The rich but now exhausted graphite seam at Borrowdale, in England, is mentioned for the first time by Dr. Merret in 1667, as containing a useful mineral peculiar to England. Very rich graphite seams have been found during recent decades, both at the mouth of the Yenisej (Sidoroff's graphite quarry) and at a spur of the Sayan mountains in the southern part of Siberia (Alibert's graphite quarry), and these discoveries have played a certainrôlein the recent history of the exploration of the country.
[349]Nephrite is a light green, sometimes grass-green, very hard and compact species of amphibolite, which occurs in High Asia, Mexico, and New Zealand. At all these places it has been employed for stone implements, vases, pipes, &c. The Chinese put an immensely high value upon it, and the wish to procure nephite is said often to have determined their politics, to have caused wars, and impressed its stamp on treaties of peace concluded between millions. I also consider it probable that the precious Vasa Murrhina, which was brought to Rome after the campaign against Mithridates, and has given rise to so much discussion, was nephrite. Nephrite was also perhaps the first of all stones to be used ornamentally. For we find axes and chisels of this material among the people of the Stone Age both in Europe (where no locality is known where unworked nephrite is found) and in Asia, America, and New Zealand. In Asia implements of nephrite are found both on the Chukch Peninsula and in old graves from the Stone Age in the southern part of the country. They have been discovered at Telma, sixty versts from Irkutsk, by Mr. J. N. Wilkoffski, conservator of the East Siberian Geographical Society. In scientific mineralogy nephrite is first mentioned under the name ofKascholong(i.e.a species of stone from the river Kasch). It has been brought home under this name by Renat, a prisoner-of-war from Charles XII.'s army, from High Asia, and was given by him to Swedish mineralogists, who described it very correctly, though kascholong has since been erroneously considered a species of quarts.
[350]The Eskimo however, like the Chukches, do not appear to have any proper religion or idea of a life after this.
[351]We have already found some land mollusca at Port Clarence, but none at St. Lawrence Bay. The northernmostfindof such animals now known was made by Von Middendorff, who found a species of Physa on the Taimur Peninsula.
[352]That a fire-emitting mountain was to be found in Siberia east of the Yenisej is already mentioned in a treatise by Isaak Massa, inserted in Hessel Gerritz,Detectio Freti, Amsterdam, 1612. The rumour about the volcanos of Kamchatka thus appears to have reached Europe at that early date.
[353]Kotzebue says that he was the first seafarer who visited the island. This however is incorrect. Billings landed there on the 1st August (21st July), 1791. From the vessel some natives was seen and abaydarwhich was rowed along the coast. The natives however were frightened by some gunshots fired as a signal (Sarytchev'sReise, ii. p. 91, Sauer, p. 239). Billings says that the place where he landed (the south-east point of the island) was nearly covered with bones of sea-animals. It would be important to have these thoroughly examined, as it is not impossible that Steller's sea-cow (Rhytina) may in former times have occasionally come to this coast. At all events important contributions to a knowledge of the species of whales in Behring's Straits may be gained here.
[354]Otto von KotzebueEntdeckungs-Reise an die Sud-See und nach der Behring-Strasse, 1815-18Weimar, 1821, i. p. 135, ii. p. 104, iii. pp. 171 and 178.
[355]On the days after our arrival at Pitlekaj several dogs were killed. I then believed that this was done because the natives were unwilling to feed them during winter, but it is not impossible that they sacrificed them to avert the misfortunes which it was feared the arrival of the foreigners would bring with it.
The position of Behring Island—Its inhabitants—The discovery of the island by Behring—Behring's death—Steller—The former and present Fauna on the island: foxes, sea-otters, sea-cows, sea-lions, and sea-bears—Collection of bones of the Rhytina—Visit to a "rookery"—Toporkoff Island—Alexander Dubovski—Voyage to Yokohama—Lightning-stroke.
Behring Island is situated between 54° 40' and 55° 25' N. L. and 165° 40' and 166° 40' E. L. from Greenwich. It is the westernmost and nearest Kamchatka of the islands in the long chain formed by volcanic action, which bounds the Behring Sea on the south between 51° and 56° N. L. Together with the neighbouring Copper Island and some small islands and rocks lying round about, it forms a peculiar group of islands separated from the Aleutian Islands proper, named, after the rank of the great seafarer who perished here, Commander's or Commandirski Islands. They belong not to America but to Asia, and are Russian territory. Notwithstanding this the American Alaska Company has acquired the right of hunting there,[356]and maintains on the main islands two not inconsiderable commercial stations, which supply the inhabitants, several hundreds in number, with provisions and manufactured goods, the company buying from them instead furs, principally the skin of an eared seal (the sea-cat orsea-bear), of which from 20,000 to 50,000[357]are killed yearly in the region. Some Russian authorities are also settled on the island to guard the rights of the Russian state and maintain order. Half a dozen serviceable wooden houses have been built here as dwellings for the officials of the Russian Government and the American Company, for storehouses, shops, &c. The natives live partly in very roomy and in the inside not uncomfortable turf houses, partly in small wooden houses which the company endeavours gradually to substitute for the former, by yearly ordering some wooden buildings and presenting them to the most deserving of the population. Every family has its own house. There is also a Greek-Catholic church and a spacious schoolhouse. The latter is intended for Aleutian children. The school was unfortunately closed at the time of our visit, but, to judge by the writing books which lay about in the schoolroom, the education here is not to be despised. The specimens of writing at least were distinguished by their cleanness, and by an even and beautiful style. At "the colony" the houses were collected at one place into a village, situated near the sea-shore at a suitable distance from the fishing ground in a valley overgrown in summer by a rich vegetation, but treeless and surrounded by treeless rounded heights. From the sea this village has the look of a northern fishing station. There are besides some scattered houses here and there on other parts of the island, for instance on its north-eastern side, where the potato is said to be cultivated
THE COLONY ON BEHRING ISLAND.THE COLONY ON BEHRING ISLAND.(After a photograph.)
on a small scale, and at the fishing place on the north side where there are two large sheds for skins and a number of very small earth-holes used only during the slaughter season.
THE "COLONY" ON COPPER ISLAND.THE "COLONY" ON COPPER ISLAND.(After a photograph.)
Behring Island, with regard both to geography and natural history, is one of the most remarkable islands in the north part of the Pacific. It was here that Behring after his last unfortunate voyage in the sea which now bears his name, finished his long course as an explorer. He was however survived by many of his followers, among them by the physician and naturalist Steller, to whom we owe a masterpiece seldom surpassed—a sketch of the natural conditions and animal life on the island, never before visited by man, where he involuntarily passed the time from the middle of November 1741, to the end of August 1742.[358]
It was the desire to procure for our museums the skins or skeletons of the many remarkable mammalia occurring here, also to compare the present state of the island which for nearly a century and a half has been exposed to the unsparing thirst of man for sport and plunder, with Steller's spirited and picturesque description, which led me to include a visit to the island in the plan of the expedition. The accounts I got at Behring Island from the American newspapers of the anxiety which our wintering had caused in Europe led me indeed to make our stay there shorter than I at first intended. Our harvest of collections and observations was at all events extraordinarily abundant. But before I proceed to give an account of our own stay on the island, I must devote a few words to its discovery and the first wintering there, which has a quite special interest from the island having never before been trodden by the foot of man. The abundant animal life, then found there, gives us therefore one of the exceedingly few representations we possess of the animal world as it was before man, the lord of the creation, appeared.
After Behring's vessel had drifted about a considerable time at random in the Behring Sea, in consequence of the severe scurvy-epidemic, which had spread to nearly all the men on board, without any dead reckoning being kept, and finally without sail or helmsman, literally at the mercy of wind and waves, those on board on the 15th/4th November, 1741, sighted land, off whose coast the vessel was anchored the following day at 5 o'clock P. M. An hour after the cable gave way, and an enormous sea threw the vessel towards the shore-cliffs. All appeared to be already lost. But the vessel, instead of being driven ashore by new
NATIVES OF BEHRING ISLAND.NATIVES OF BEHRING ISLAND.(After a photograph.)
waves, came unexpectedly into a basin 4-1/2 fathoms deep surrounded by rocks and with quite still water, being connected with the sea only by a single narrow opening. If the unmanageable vessel had not drifted just to that place it would certainly have gone to pieces, and all on board would have perished
It was only with great difficulty that the sick crew could put out a boat in which Lieut. Waxel and Steller landed. They found the land uninhabited, devoid of wood, and uninviting. But a rivulet with fresh clear water purled yet unfrozen down the mountain sides, and in the sand hills along the coast were found some deep pits, which when enlarged and covered with sails could be used as dwellings. The men who could still stand on their legs all joined in this work. On the 19th/8th November the sick could be removed to land, but, as often happens, many died when they were brought out of the cabin into the fresh air, others while they were being carried from the vessel or immediately after they came to land. All in whom the scurvy had taken the upper hand to that extent that they were already lying in bed on board the vessel, died. The survivors had scarcely time or strength to bury the dead, and found it difficult to protect the corpses from the hungry foxes that swarmed on the island and had not yet learned to be afraid of man. On the 20th/9th Behring was carried on land; he was already much reduced and dejected, and could not be induced to take exercise. He died on the 19th/8th December.
VITUS BEHRING was a Dane by birth, and when a young man had already made voyages to the East and West Indies. In 1707 he was received into the Russian navy as officer, and as such took part in all the warlike enterprises of that fleet against Sweden. He was in a way buried alive on the island that now bears his name, for at last he did not permit his men to remove the sand that lolled down upon him from the walls of the sand pit in which he rested. For he thought that the sand warmed his chilled body. Beforethe corpse could be properly buried it had therefore to be dug out of its bed, a circumstance which appears to have produced a disagreeable impression on the survivors. The two Lieutenants, Waxel and Chitrov, had kept themselves in pretty good health at sea, but now fell seriously ill, though they recovered. Only the physician of the expedition, Georg Wilhelm Steller, was all the time in good health, and that a single man of the whole crew escaped with his life was clearly clue to the skill of this gifted man, to his invincible energy and his cheerful and sanguine disposition. These qualities were also abundantly tested during the wintering. On the night before the 10th December/29th November, the vessel, on which no watch was kept, because all the men were required on land to care for the sick, was cast ashore by a violent E.S.E. storm. So great a quantity of provisions was thus lost, that the remaining stock was not sufficient by itself to yield enough food for all the men during a whole winter. Men were therefore sent out in all directions to inquire into the state of the land. They returned with the information that the vessel had stranded, not, as was hoped at first, on the mainland but on an uninhabited, woodless island. It was thus clear to the shipwrecked men that in order to be saved they could rely only on their judgment and strength. At the beginning they found that if any provisions were to be reserved for the voyage home, it was necessary that they should support themselves during winter to a considerable extent by hunting. They did not like to use the flesh of the fox for food, and at first kept to that of the sea-otter. This animal at present is very scarce on Behring Island, but at that time the shore was covered with whole herds of it. They had no fear of man, came from curiosity straight to the fires, and did not run away when any one approached. A dear-bought experience, however, soon taught them caution; at all events, from 800 to 900 head were taken, a splendid catch when we considerthat the skin of this animal at the Chinese frontier fetched from 80 to 100 roubles each. Besides, in the beginning of winter two whales stranded on the island. The shipwrecked men considered these then provision depôts, and appear to have preferred whale blubber to the flesh of the sea-otter, which had an unpleasant taste and was tough as leather.[359]
In spring the sea-otters disappeared, but now there came to the island in their stead other animals in large herds, viz sea-bears, seals, and sea-lions. The flesh of the young sea-lion was considered a great delicacy.[360]When the sea-otters became scarcer and more shy and difficult to catch, the shipwrecked men found means also to kill sea-cows, whose flesh Steller considered equal to beef. Several barrels of their flesh were even salted to serve as provisions during the return journey. As the land became clear of snow in the middle of April, Waxel called together the forty-five men who survived to a consultation regarding the steps that ought to be taken in order to reach the mainland. Among many different proposals, that was adopted of building a new vessel with the materials supplied by the stranded one. The three ship-carpenters who had been on board were dead. But fortunately there was among the survivors a Cossack, SAVA STARODUBZOV, who had taken part as a workman in shipbuilding at Okotsk, and now undertook to manage the building of the new vessel. With necessity for a teacher he also succeeded in executinghis commission, so that a newSt. Peterwas launched on the 21st/10th August, 1742. The vessel was forty feet long, thirteen feet beam, and six and a half feet deep, and sailed as well as if built by an experienced master of his craft, but on the other hand leaked seriously in a high sea. The return voyage at all events passed successfully. On the 5th September/25th August Kamchatka was sighted, and two days after theSt. Peteranchored at Petropaulovsk, where the shipwrecked men found a storehouse with anabundantstock of provisions according to their ideas, which probably were not pitched very high. Next year they sailed on with their Behring-Island-built vessel to Okotsk. On then arrival there, of the seventy-six persons who originally took part in the expedition, thirty-two were dead. At Kamchatka they had all been considered dead, and the effects they left behind them had been scattered and divided. Steller voluntarily remained some time longer in Kamchatka in order to carry on his researches in natural history. Unfortunately he drew upon himself the ill-will of the authorities, in consequence of the free way in which he criticised their abuses. This led to a trial at the court at Irkutsk. He was, indeed, found innocent, and obtained permission to travel home, but at Zolikamsk he was overtaken by an express with orders to bring him back to Irkutsk. On the way thither he met another express with renewed permission to travel to Europe. But the powers of the strong and formerly healthy man were exhausted by his hunting backwards and forwards across the immeasurable deserts of Siberia. He died soon after, on the 23rd/12th November, 1746, at Tjumen, only thirty-seven years of age, of a fever by which he was attacked during the journey.[361]
The immense quantity of valuable furs brought home by the survivors of Behring's so unfortunate third voyage affected the fur-dealers, Cossacks, and hunters of Siberia much in the same way as the rumour about Eldorado or about the riches of the Casic Dobaybe did the Spanish discoverers of middle and southern America. Numerous expeditions were fitted out to the new land rich in furs, where extensive territories previously unknown were made tributary to the Czar of Russia. Most of these expeditions landed on Behring Island during the voyage out and home, and in a short time wrought a complete change in the fauna of the island. Thanks to Steller's spirited sketch of the animal life he observed there, we have also an opportunity of forming an idea of the alteration in the fauna which man brings about in a land in which he settles.
Arctic foxes were found in incredible numbers on the island during the wintering of the Behring expedition. They not only ate up everything that was at all eatable that was left in the open air, but forced their way as well by day as by night into the houses and carried off all that they could, even such things as were of no use whatever to them, as knives, sticks, sacks, shoes and stockings. Even if anything had been never so well buried and loaded with stones, they not only found the place but even pushed away the stones with their shoulders like men. Though they could not eat what they found, they carried it off and concealed it under stones. In such a case some foxes stood on guard, and if a man approached all assisted in speedily concealing the stolen article in the sand so that no trace of it was left. When any of the men slept out of doors at nightthe foxes carried off their caps and gloves, and made their way under the covering. They nosed the noses of the sleepers to find out whether they were dead or living, and attempted to nibble at any who held their breath. As the female sea-lions and sea-bears often suffocate their young during sleep, the foxes every morning made an inspection of the place where these animals lie down in immense herds, and if they found a dead young one they immediately helped each other, like good scavengers, to carry away the carcase. When men were employed out of doors they had to drive the foxes away with sticks, and they became, in consequence of the slyness and cunning with which they knew how to carry out their thefts and the skill which they showed in combining to gain an end which they could not compass as single animals, actually dangerous to the shipwrecked men, by whom they were therefore heartily hated, pursued, tormented, and killed. Since then thousands and thousands of foxes have been killed on Behring Island by the fur-hunters. Now they are so scarce that during our stay there we did not see one. Those that still survive, besides, as the Europeans settled on the island informed me, do not wear the precious dark blue dress formerly common but the white, which is of little value. On the neighbouring Copper Island, however, there are still dark blue foxes in pretty large numbers.[362]
Nine hundred sea-otters were killed here by Steller and his companions in 1741-42. The following quotation is taken from Steller's description of this animal which is now so shy at the sight of man:—
"With respect to playfulness it surpasses every other animal that lives either in the sea or on the land. When it comes up out of the sea it shakes the water from its fur, and dresses it as a cat its head with its fore-paws, stretches its body, arranges its hair, throws its head this way and that, contemplating itself and its beautiful fur with evident satisfaction. The animal is so much taken up with this dressing of itself, that while thus employed it may easily be approached and killed. If one strikes a sea-otter twenty times across the back, it bears it patiently, 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 thesea-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 thehunting-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 full of vermin and resembled the bark of an old oak. The full grown animal was from twenty-eight to thirty-five English feet in length and weighed about sixty-seven cwt. The head was small in proportion to the large thick body, the neck short, the body diminishing rapidly behind. The short fore-leg terminated abruptly without fingers or nails, but was overgrown with a number of short thickly placed brush-hairs, the hind-leg was replaced by a tail-fin resembling a whale's. The animal wanted teeth, but was instead provided with two masticating plates, one in the gum the other in the under jaw. The udders of the female, which abounded in milk, were placed between the fore-limbs. The flesh and milk resembled those of horned cattle, indeed in Steller's opinion surpassed them. The sea-cows were almost constantly employed in pasturing on the sea-weed which grew luxuriantly on the coast, moving the head and neck while so doing much in the same way as an ox. While they pastured they showed great voracity, and did not allow themselves to bedisturbed in the least by the presence of man. One might even touch them without them 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 shipwrecked 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 1st June/21st May 1742, but it was unsuccessful. 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 building 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 Linnæus, 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 waynearly allthe statements of later naturalists as to its occurrence and mode of life. That this is actually the case is shown by the following abstract,completeas far as I know, of what is said ofthe 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 Auszügen 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." (ibidp. 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." (ibidp. 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" (ibidp. 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 word is said about the sea-cow (PALLAS,Neue nordische Beyträge, ii. p. 310).
SCHELECHOV passed the winter 1783-84 on Behring Island, but during the whole time he only succeeded in killing some white foxes, and in the narrative of the voyage there is not a word about the sea-cow (GRIGORI SCHELECHOVrussischen Kaufmanns erste und zweite Reise, &c., St. Petersburg, 1793).
Some further accounts of the sea-cow have been obtained through the mining engineer PET. JAKOVLEV, who visited Commander's Islands in 1755 in order to investigate the occurrence of copper on Copper Island. In the account of this voyage which he gave to Pallas there is not indeed one word about the sea-cow, but in 1867 PEKARSKI published in theMemoirsof the Petersburg Academy some extracts from Jakovlev's journal, from which it appears that the sea-cow already in his time was driven away from Copper Island. Jakovlev on this account on the 27th November, 1755, laid a petition before the authorities on Kamchatka, for having the hunting of the sea-cow placed under restraint of law and the extermination of the animal thus prevented, a thoughtful act honourable to its author, which certainly ought to serve as a pattern in our times (J. FR. BRANDT,Symbolæ Sirenologicæ, Mém. de l'Acad. de St. Pétersbourg, t. xii. No. 1, 1861-68, p. 295).
In his account of Behring's voyage (1785-94) published in 1802, Sauer says, p. 181: "Sea-cows were very common on Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands,[364]when they were firstdiscovered, but the last was killed on Behring Island in 1768, and none has been seen since then."
On the ground of the writings of which I have given an account above, and of various pieces of information collected during this century from the Russian authorities in the region, by the skilful conservator WOSNESSENSKI, the academicians von Baer and Brandt[365]came to the conclusion that the sea-cow had scarcely been seen by Europeans before the 19th/8th November, 1741, when Steller, the day after his landing on Behring Island for the first time saw some strange animals pasturing with their heads under water on the shores of the island; and that the animal twenty-seven years afterwards, or in 1768, was completely exterminated The latter statement however is undoubtedly incorrect; for, in the course of the many inquiries I made of the natives, I obtained distinct information that living sea-cows had been seen much later. Acreole(that is, the offspring of a Russian and an Aleutian), who was sixty-seven years of age, of intelligent appearance and in the full possession of his mental faculties, stated "that his father died in 1847 at the age of eighty-eight. He had come from Volhynia, his native place, to Behring Island at the age of eighteen, accordingly in 1777. The two or three first years of his stay there,i.e.till 1779 or 1780, sea-cows were still being killed as they pastured on sea-weed. The heart only was eaten, and the hide used forbaydars.[366]In consequence of its thickness the hide was splitin two, and the two pieces thus obtained had gone to make abaydartwenty feet long, seven and a half feet broad, and three feet deep. After that time no sea-cows had been killed."
There is evidence, however, that a sea-cow had been seen at the island still later. Twocreoles, Feodor Mertchenin and Stepnoff, stated, that about twenty-five years ago at Tolstoj-mys, on the east side of the island, they had seen an animal unknown to them which was very thick before, but grew smaller behind, had small fore-feet, and appeared with a length of about fifteen feet above water, now raising itself up, now lowering itself. The animal "blew," not through blowholes, but through the mouth, which was somewhat drawn out. It was brown in colour with some lighter spots. A back fin was wanting, but when the animal raised itself it was possible, on account of its great leanness, to see its backbone projecting. I instituted a through examination of both my informants. Their accounts agreed completely, and appeared to have claims to be regarded as trustworthy. That the animal which they saw was actually a sea-cow, is clearly proved both by the description of the animal's form and way of pasturing in the water, and by the account of the way in which it breathed, its colour, and leanness. InAüsfurliche Beschreibung von sonderbaren Meerthieren, Steller says, p. 97, "While they pasture, they raise every fourth or fifth minute their nose from the water in order to blow out air and a little water;" p. 98, "During winter they are so lean that it is possible to count their vertebræ and ribs;" and p. 54, "Some sea-cows have pretty large white spots and streaks, so that they have a spotted appearance." As these natives had no knowledge of Steller's description of the animal, it is impossible that their statement can be false. The death-year of the Rhytina race must therefore be altered at leastto 1854. With reference to this point it may be remarked that many circumstances indicate that the Rhytina herds were rather driven away from the rich pastures on Behring Island than exterminated there, and that the species became extinct because in their new haunt they were unable to maintain the struggle for existence. The form of the sea-cow, varying from that of most recent animals, besides indicates that, like the long-tailed duck on Iceland, the dront on Mauritius, and the large ostrich-like birds on New Zealand, it was the last representative of an animal group destined to extinction.
Mr. OSCHE, one of the Alaska Company's skin inspectors, a native of Liffland and at present settled on Copper Island, informed me that the bones of the sea-cow also occurred on the western side of that island. On the other hand, such bones are said not to be found on the small island described farther on lying off the colony on Behring Island, although Rhytina bones are common on the neighbouring shores of the main island.
This is the scanty information I have been able to collect from the natives and others resident in the quarter regarding the animal in question. On the other hand, my endeavours to procure Rhytina bones were crowned with greater success, and I succeeded in actually bringing together a very large and fine collection of skeleton fragments.
When I first made the acquaintance of Europeans on the island, they told me that there was little probability of finding anything of value in this respect, for the company had offered 150 roubles for a skeleton without success. But before I had been many hours on land, I came to know that large or small collections of bones were to be found here and there in the huts of the natives. These I purchased, intentionally paying for them such a price that the seller was more than satisfied and his neighbours were a little envious. A great part of the male population now began to search for bones very eagerly, and in this way I collected such a quantity that twenty-one casks, large boxes, or