The herds frequenting these coasts must have been large, as I have seen it stated that the number of sea-cows caught in a season sometimes ran up into the thousands. The correctness of this statement I am unable to verify, but that the animals were numerous is evidenced by the interest taken by government in their preservation, as well as by the facts, regarding the parties hunting them, set out in Patterson's despatch.
The sea-cow would seem to have been very easily captured. It frequently came on to the land and made its way for short distances inland. Its unwieldiness would render it practically helpless on shore, where it would fall an easy prey to its captors. In the water it was more at home, and its pursuit, at least in the smaller boats, was probably not without an element of danger. The late Judge Alley, who was an authority on matters relating to the earlier days of settlement in this island, informed me that one method adopted by the fishermen in hunting the animals was, when possible, to catch a young calf and take it on board their craft, when the noise made by the youngster attracted the old ones to the vessel's side where they were readily despatched.
Whatever the methods employed to catch them, there can be no doubt but that they were only too successful, the results being that the herds have long since become extinct. That they ever existed is almost forgotten, and with the exception of a few references to them in official papers and a few place-names, there is little now to tell of what was once an important industry.
Charlottetown, 31st December, 1902.
