[85] 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.
[86] A species of cedar (_Thuja_) is the wood used.
MUSIC--MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--SLAVES--NEIGHBOURING TRIBES--TRADE WITH THESE--ARMY
They have a number which they sing on various occasions--at war,[87] whaling and fishing, at their marriages and feasts, and at public festivals or solemnities. The language of the most of these appears to be very different in many respects from that used in their common conversation, which leads me to believe either that they have a different mode of expressing themselves in poetry, or that they borrow their songs from their neighbours; and what the more particularly induces me to the latter opinion is, that whenever any of the Newchemass, a people from the northward, and who speak a very different language, arrived, they used to tell me that they expected a new song, and were almost always sure to have one.
Their tunes are generally soft and plaintive, and though not possessing great variety, are not deficient in harmony. Their singing is generally accompanied with several rude kinds of instrumental music, among the most prominent of which is a kind of a drum. This is nothing more than a long plank hollowed out on the under side and made quite thin, which is beat upon by a stick of about a foot long, and renders a sound not unlike beating on the head of an empty cask, but much louder.