THE SIRENS OF THE SEA. 625 



wrapped round as with the folds of a hammock, and the net has to be 

 cut away piecemeal. As often as not, the dugongs thus drown them- 

 selves by frantic efforts to escape, but where a partial entanglement 

 permits them to follow their instinct and come to the surface, they are 

 taken alive. In the morning the boat cruises round to see how the 

 nets have fared and to secure the game. . . . The dugongs tbat are 

 found alive in their captivity struggle desperately. As a rule 5 they 

 are as harmless as vegetarians are usually supposed to be, the only 

 known breakers of the peace being a couple of bulls fighting over a 

 sweetheart, or a frantic mother maddened by danger to her offspring. 

 Nevertheless, although the dugong is by nature mild-mannered, and 

 innocent of the wiles by which a Greenland whale sends a boat spin- 

 ning into the air with all bands, the men prefer to give the netted in 

 dividual a wide bertb. Nor would it be the correct thing to slaughter 

 it on the ground, lest the blood should attract a legion of sanguinary 

 sharks, whose attacks would cause a speedy loss of the booty. The 

 dugong, still floundering, is therefore hauled ashore, and a long knife 

 applied to the throat puts an end to its career." Harpooning has been 

 practiced, and is much liked by the blacks, but is discountenanced be- 

 cause it tends to drive away the animals. 



" When the dugong was hauled up on the sandy slope, a line was 

 cut down tbe belly and the skin was taken off in one piece, and spread 

 out to be used as a receptacle for the meat as it was hewn from the 

 carcass. As it happened to be a fair-sized skin, it required two men 

 to carry it. We were afterward shown a hide that was an inch and a 

 half thick at the back, though the thickness bad gradually diminished 

 toward the under part of the body." The hide is not, however, com- 

 posed of gross material, but is really quite delicate. 



The flesh "is cut off the carcass in flitches and slabs, and from the 

 same animal is taken meat resembling beef, veal, and bacon. I have 

 eaten it in each form, and can testify to its excellence, and to the way 

 in which it has been palmed off upon knowing men as prime fillets 

 of beef, cutlets of veal, and rashers of superior bacon. If the dugong 

 is not properly fat, it is turned chiefly into bacon ; should it, however, 

 present a layer nearly two inches thick, the snow-white fat is used for 

 a more important purpose. The lean flesh, beef-like in the mature 

 and veal-like in the young animals, is eaten fresh or salted for food. 

 The bacon-flitch in size, color, and streakiness, if hung in an English 

 pork-butcher's shop, might easily be taken for a section of the side of 

 a true Wiltshire hog ; and the only difference detected in the eating 

 would be, in the dugong, an absence of the strong flavor too often 

 found in pork ; and a mature dugong, twelve feet long, or there- 

 about, would weigh nearly a ton. It is worth mentioning, too, before 

 passing from the flesh of this animal, that the meat from the calf is 

 always the best, and that it is recommended by the faculty to consumpr 

 tive persons, by reason of its undoubted strengthening qualities." 

 VOL. xx. 40 



