Part 56 (1/2)
There is evidence, however, that a sea-cow had been seen at the island still later. Two _creoles_, 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 inst.i.tuted 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. In _Ausfurliche 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 vertebrae 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 least to 1854. With reference to this point it may be remarked that many circ.u.mstances 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 sh.o.r.es 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 quant.i.ty that twenty-one casks, large boxes, or barrels were filled with Rhytina bones; among which were three very fine, complete skulls, and others more or less damaged, several considerable collections of bones from the same skeleton, &c.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SKELETON OF RHYTINA SHOWN AT THE 'VEGA' EXHIBITION AT THE ROYAL PALACE STOCKHOLM. (After a photograph.) ]
[Ill.u.s.tration: ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF THE RHYTINA.
1. Drawing in an old map of the Behring Sea, found by Middendorff (_Sibir. Reise_ iv. 2 p. 839).
2. Sketch by Steller, given to Pallas (Pallas, Icones ad zoographiam _Rosso-Asiaticam_, Fasc. ii.) ]
The Rhytina bones do not lie at the level of the sea, but upon a strand-bank thickly overgrown with luxuriant gra.s.s, at a height of two or three metres above it. They are commonly covered with a layer of earth and gravel from thirty to fifty centimetres in thickness.
In order to find them, as it would be too troublesome to dig the whole of the gra.s.sy bank, one must examine the ground with a pointed iron rod, a bayonet, or some such tool. One soon learns to distinguish, by the resistance and nature of the sound, whether the rod stuck into the ground has come into contact with a stone, a piece of wood, or a fragment of bone. The ribs are used by the natives, on account of their hard ivory-like structure, for shoeing the runners of the sledges or for carvings. They have accordingly been already used up on a large scale, and are more uncommon than other bones. The finger-bone, which perhaps originally was cartilaginous, appears in most cases to be quite destroyed, as well as the outermost vertebrae of the tail. I could not obtain any such bones, though I specially urged the natives to get me the smaller bones too and promised to pay a high price for them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: RECONSTRUCTED FORM OF THE SEA-COW. After J. Fr. Brandt (_Symbolae Sirenologicae_, Fasc. iii. p. 282). ]
The only large animal which is still found on Behring Island in perhaps as large numbers as in Steller's time is the _sea-bear_.
Even it had already diminished so that the year's catch was inconsiderable,[367] when in 1871 a single company obtained for a payment to the Russian crown, if I recollect right, of two roubles for every animal killed, and exclusive right to the hunting, which was accordingly arranged in a more purposelike way. At certain times of the year the killing of the sea-bear is wholly prohibited. The number of the animals to be killed is settled beforehand, quite in the same way as the farmer at the time of killing in autumn is wont to do with his herd of cattle. Females and young are only killed exceptionally. Even the married males, or more correctly the males that can get themselves a harem and can defend it, commonly escape being killed, if not for any other reason, because the skin is too often torn and tattered and the hair pulled out. It is thus the bachelors that have to yield up their skins.
That a wild animal may be slaughtered in so orderly a way, depends on its peculiar mode of life.[368] For the sea-bears are found year after year during summer at certain points projecting into the sea (rookeries), where, collected in hundreds of thousands, they pa.s.s several months without the least food. The males (oxen) come first to the place, most of them in the month of May or at the beginning of June.
Combats of excessive violence, often with a deadly issue for one of the parties, now arise regarding the s.p.a.ce of about a hundred square feet, which each seal-ox considers necessary for its home. The strongest and most successful in fight retain the best places near the sh.o.r.e, the weaker have to crawl farther up on land, where the expectation of getting a sufficient number of spouses is not particularly great. The fighting goes on with many feigned attacks and parades. At first the contest concerns the proprietors.h.i.+p of the soil. The attacked therefore never follows its opponent beyond the area it has once taken up, but haughtily lays itself down, when the enemy has retired, in order in the aims of sleep to collect forces for a new combat. The animal in such a case grunts with satisfaction, throws itself on its back, scratches itself with its fore-feet, looks after its toilet, or cools itself by slowly fanning with one of its hind-feet, but it is always on the alert and ready for a new fight until it is tired out and meets its match, and is driven by it farther up from the beach. One of the most peculiar traits of these animals is that during their stay on land they unceasingly use their hind-paws as fans, and sometimes also as parasols.
Such fans may on a warm day be in motion at the same time by the hundred thousand at a ”rookery.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: SEA-BEARS Male, Female, and Young. (From a water colour painting by H.W. Elliott.) ]
In the middle of June the females come up from the sea. At the water's edge they are received in a very accommodating way by some strong oxen that have succeeded in securing for themselves places next the sh.o.r.e, and now are bent by fair means or foul on annexing the fair for their harem. But scarcely is the female that has come up out of the water established with seal-ox No. 1, when this ox rushes towards a new beauty on the surface of the water. Seal-ox No.
2 now stretches out his neck and without ceremony lays hold of No.
1's spouse, to be afterwards exposed to a repet.i.tion of the trick by No. 3. In such cases the females are quite pa.s.sive, never fall out with each other, and bear with patience the severe wounds they often get when they are pulled about by the combatants, now in one direction, now in another. All the females are finally distributed in this way after furious combats among the males, those of the latter who are nearest the beach getting from twelve to fifteen consorts to their share. Those that have been compelled to settle farther from the sh.o.r.e must be content with four or five. Soon after the landing of the females they bring forth their young, which are treated with great indifference and are protected by the adopted father only within the boundaries of the harem. Next comes the pairing season, and when it has pa.s.sed there is an end to the arrangement and distribution into families at first so strictly maintained. The seal-oxen, rendered lean by three months absolute fasting, by degrees leave the ”rookery,” which is taken possession of by the sea-cows, the young, and a number of young males, that have not ventured to the place before. In the middle of September, when the young have learned to swim, the place is quite abandoned, with the exception of single animals that have remained behind for one reason or other. In long continued heavy rain many of the animals besides seek protection in the sea, but return when the rain ceases. Continuous heat and suns.h.i.+ne besides exert the same influence, cold, moist air, with mist-concealed sun, on the other hand draw them up on land by thousands.
Males under six years of age cannot, like the older males, possess themselves, by fighting, of spouses and a home of their own. They therefore collect, along with young females, in herds of several thousand to several hundred thousand, on the sh.o.r.es between the rookeries proper, some of them close packed next the water's edge, others scattered in small flocks a little farther from the sh.o.r.e on the gra.s.s, where they by turns play with each other with a frolicsomeness like that of young dogs, by turns he down to sleep at a common signal in all conceivable positions.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”SEAL ROOKERY” ON ST. PAUL'S ISLAND, ONE OF THE PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. (After a drawing by H.W. Elliott.) ]
It is these unfortunate useless bachelors which at the properly managed hunting stations yield the contingent for slaughter. For this purpose they are driven by the natives from the sh.o.r.e slowly, about a kilometre an hour, and with frequent rests, to the place of slaughter, situated a kilometre or two from the sh.o.r.e. Then the females and the young ones are driven away, as well as the males whose skins are unserviceable. The rest are first stunned with a blow on the head, and afterwards stabbed with a knife.
While the _Vega_ steamed down towards Behring Island we met, already far from land, herds of sea-bears, which followed the vessel from curiosity for long stretches. Being unacquainted with the sea-bear's mode of life, I believed from this circ.u.mstance that they had already left their summer haunts, but on our arrival at the colony I was informed that this was not the case, but that a very great number of animals still remained at the rookery on the north-eastern point of the island. Naturally one of our first excursions was to this place, situated about twenty kilometres from the village. Such a journey cannot now be undertaken alone and unattended, because even an involuntary want of caution might easily cause much economic loss to the natives, and to the company that owns the right of hunting. During the journey we were accordingly accompanied by the chief of the village, a black-haired stammering Aleutian, and ”the Cossack,” a young, pleasant, and agreeable fellow, who on solemn occasions wore a sabre nearly as long as himself, but besides did not in the least correspond to the Cossack type of the writers of novels and plays.
The journey was performed in large sledges drawn by ten dogs over snow-free rounded hills and hill-plateaus covered with a rather scanty vegetation, and through valleys treeless as the mountains, but adorned with luxuriant vegetation, rich in splendid lilies, syngenesia, umbellifera, &c. The journey was sometimes tedious enough, but we now and then went at a whistling rate, especially when the dog-team descended the steep mountain slopes, or went through the mora.s.ses and the clay puddles formed in the constantly used way. The driver was bespattered from top to toe with a thick layer of mud, an inconvenience attending the unusual team, which was foreseen before our departure from the colony, in consequence of which our friends there urged that, notwithstanding the fine weather, we should all take overcoats. The dog-team was kept pretty far from the sh.o.r.e in order not to frighten the seals, and then we went on foot to the place where the sea-bears were, choosing our way so that we had the wind in our faces. We could in this way, without disturbing them, come very near the animals, which, according to the undoubtedly somewhat exaggerated statement made to us on the spot, were collected at the time to the number of 200,000, on the promontory and the neighbouring sh.o.r.es. We obtained permission to creep, accompanied by our guide, close to a herd lying a little apart. The older animals became at first somewhat uneasy when they observed our approach, but they soon settled down completely, and we had now the pleasure of beholding a peculiar spectacle.
We were the only spectators. The scene consisted of a beach covered with stones and washed by foaming breakers, the background of the immeasurable ocean, and the actors of thousands of wonderfully-formed animals. A number of old males lay still and motionless, heedless of what was going on around them. Others crept clumsily on their small short legs between the stones of the beach, or swam with incredible agility among the breakers, played, caressed each other, and quarrelled. At one place two old animals fought, uttering a peculiar hissing sound, and in such a way as if the attack and defence had been carried out in studied att.i.tudes. At another place a feigned combat was going on between an old and a young animal. It looked as if the latter was being instructed in the art of fighting. Everywhere the small black young ones crept constantly backwards and forwards among the old sea-bears, now and then bleating like lambs calling on their mothers. The young ones are often smothered by the old, when the latter, frightened in some way, rush out into the sea. After such an alarm hundreds of dead young are found on the sh.o.r.e.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SLAUGHTER OF SEA-BEARS. (After a drawing by H.W.
Elliott.) ]
[Ill.u.s.tration: SEA-BEARS ON THEIR WAY TO THE ”ROOKERIES.”
(After a drawing by H.W. Elliott.) ]