Note 85 — Chapter VII

This "sea-cow," of which Meares also speaks as an animal hunted by the Nootka people, though rarely seen so far south, must, one might think, be another name for the seal or "sea-calf," were not the latter expressly referred to by name. The sea-cow, dugong, or manatee is not found in these seas, and the Rhytina Stelleri, once so abundant on Behring Island in Behring Strait, is generally considered to have been exterminated in the interval between 1741-1768. This, however, is hardly in accordance with fact, for, as evidence collected by Nordenskjöld proves, they were occasionally killed in 1780, while one was seen as late as 1854. It is therefore by no means improbable that in 1803 a few stragglers were still waiting their end on the shores of Vancouver Island. The sea-lion (Eumetopias Stelleri) is a seal also verging on extinction, the Otaria ursinus being now the fur seal of commerce (and politics) in that part of the North Pacific.