erstand the
ceremonies. So they were convinced that it was an evil thing, and put it
to the torture, hoping to extract a confession from--a seal!"

"But there are mermaids!" said Colin. "I've seen 'em. Not alive, of
course, but stuffed."

"So have I," the agent said, laughing; "that was a trick the Japanese
used and fooled a lot of people. Why, there was one in a museum in
Boston for years! It was a fake, of course. Obviously!"

"How did they do it?"

"Head and shoulders of a newly-born monkey fastened to a fish's body. I
forget now what fish. Then with incredible pains, they laid rows upon
rows of fish scales all over the monkey's shoulders and chest. Wonderful
work. Each scale was glued on separately, beginning from scales almost
microscopic and shading both in size and color exactly into those of the
fish hinder portion. The work was so exquisitely done that its
artificiality could not be detected. But live mermaids haven't been put
in any aquarium. Not yet!"

"I don't suppose there's even a water-baby left!" the boy said,
laughing.

"No," was the reply. "We couldn't give it any milk now, the sea-cows
have been all killed off."

"Sea-cows?"

"Big creatures, bigger even than walruses. Lots of them here some time.
We find their bones everywhere. Nearly all our sled-runners are made of
sea-cow bones. They grazed like cattle below water on the seaweeds of
the shore and the natives used to spear them at low tide."

[Illustration: CATCH OF HERRING ON BEACH AT GASTINEAU CHANNEL, ALASKA.

_Courtesy of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries._]

"Are there walruses here, too?"

"I saw three a few years ago, but none since. About two hundred miles
north of here, however, on St. Matthew's Island, there used to be scores
of them. But I reckon hunters and polar bears, between them, have
destroyed most of them."

"Do polar bears come here in winter?"

The agent shook his head.

"The Pribilof Islands are not cold enough for a polar bear. Besides he
likes walrus meat better than seal. Bear eats a lot of fish, too."

"I thought they lived almost entirely on seals."

"They couldn't very well," was the reply. "Seal is a better swimmer than
a bear, although the polar bear is a marvel in the water for a land
animal and can overhaul a walrus. The big white fellows only catch seal
when basking on the ice. They get a good many that way. The hunters have
left nothing to the Pribilofs except the fur seal and the sea-lion, and
not