Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1883-11-28
A SEA-COW.
Rare Specimen for the Smithsonian
Institute.

brought down from Behring'S island by
the Alaska Fur cOmpany's steamer st.
Paul, which arrived on Sunday last
from the north. This was no less than
the skeleton of an Arctic sea.cow found
on Behring'S island by DIR. Leonard
Steinegcr, a member of scientific
societies, both in this country ard
! Europe, who was sent to the island in
the interests of science by the Smith
sonian institute. The doctor was
hampered in his researches by the
jealousy of the Russian officials, who
are acting in the interests of the Rus
sian Imperial academy, which is also
eagerly searching for aspecimen of the
sea COW, but in spite of their interfer-
ence he succeeded in carrying away a
skeleton, which is of the greatest
scientific interest. This peculiar ami
NAL, which is now supposed to be
extinct, once made its home on the
island. Whether it has ever lived
anywhere else is question. The fos-
sill beds of Europe contain bones of
sea-cows, but none which could have
belonged to animals like this. In the
Indian ocean there are also sea-cows,
but they are rare, and they are not
like the Behring'S island extinct species.
The sea-cows of the Indian ocean have
teeth, but those at Bering' island had
none; only two rough bone plates in
the mouth with which to grind up the
sea-weed on which they lived, when,
resting their arms on the shallow sea
bottom, they browsed in droves or
focks along the shore. Whalers killed
the sea-cows, natives used their bones
to make runners for their dog-drawn
sleighs; now with the fathers OF natural
history it is announced that this is an
interesting example Of how easily 81
species may become extinct, and with
the satire of time it is told that the ma
tives who sleged over snow and ice on
these bones, are now prOdding up the
shore for miles, guided by curious
and unfailing instinct which detects q
stone or shell from bone of sea-cow,
and rival scientific institutions are
urging them on with the hope of re-
ward in modern gold. The only ac-
count given of them by an observer
is that of the scientist Steller, who was
one OF Behring'S second expeditions,
which was wrecked on this island and
wintered there in 174l. The specimen
brought here on the ST. Paul is perfect,
with the exception of the end of
the tail and the wrist bones. In
addition there is a collection of seven
teen sea-cows' skulls, all in good
state of preservation. The animals,
when alive, must have been from twen-
ty-eight to thirty feet long, with head
about two feet long. Its arms, of
which there were two on the seal-like
portion of the body, had no hands.
They were simply blunt ends, which
were carried on the back when the
cow swan and let down to support it
as it fed. The mouth was small and
unarmed with teeth; the ewes were
small; the ears, merely small orifees
in the head, without any sign of exter-
nal ear; the tail and fins were like those
of a whale. They were not prolific, the
offspring being limited to one per year
for each female, and they were there
fore easily extinguished.
Dr. Stejneger said that he was forced
to use considerable diplomacy in deal
ing with the natives, for, had he at
once told them that he would pay more
than the Russians would, there would
at once have been an order prohibiting
the natives from selling any of the
bones, as-there has since been. All
that he could do was to say that he
would give as much as the Russian of
ticials and, making himself passably
we'll understood, the natives worked
for him. They did not go to work to
hunt Tor bones exclusively, but as they
walked along the beach they took their
sticks and felt for skeletons. No other
government has ever sent any one up