2 4 3 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wholesale slaughter by man, in 1768, just twenty-seven years after it 

 was first discovered by the voyager Behring on a small island lying off 

 the Kamtchatkan coast. The Rhytina was a great unwieldy animal 

 of some twenty-seven feet in length, and about twenty feet in circum- 

 ference. It fell a ready prey to Behring and his crew, who were 

 -located on the island for several months; the work of extermination 

 being duly completed by subsequent voyagers who visited the island. 

 The manatees are no strangers to London, since in 1875 one of these 

 animals was to be seen disporting itself in the seal-tank in the gardens 

 of the Zoological Society at Regent's Park. This specimen, a female 

 of immature age, was brought from the Demerara coast, and was the 

 first living specimen which had been brought to England, although 

 attempts had been made in 1866 to procure these animals for the gar- 

 dens at Regent's Park, one specimen, indeed, dying just before reach- 

 ing Southampton. A member of the Manatee group, obtained from 

 Trinidad, was recently exhibited in London, and the public, interested 

 in the curious in zoology, were thus enabled to interview a living mem- 

 ber of the Siren group, while comparative anatomists, in their turn, 

 have been afforded a rich treat from the fate which awaits rare and 

 common specimens having, as we write, overtaken the illustrious vis- 

 itor in question. 



The manatees and dugongs possess bodies which, as regards their 

 shape, may be described each as a great barrel " long drawn out." No 

 hinder limbs are developed, this latter peculiarity distinguishing them 

 from the seals, and relating them to the whales. The hide is very 

 tough, sparsely covered with hair, and most nearly resembles that of 

 the hippopotamus. The "flippers," or paddle-like limbs, are placed 

 far forward on the body, and on the edge of the paddle rudimentary 

 nails are developed ; while concealed beneath the skin of the paddle 

 we find the complete skeleton of an arm or fore-limb. The tail is 

 broad, horizontally flattened, like that of the whales, and forms an 

 effective propeller. These animals are vegetable feeders, the Zoologi- 

 cal Society's specimen having exhibited a strong partiality for lettuce 

 and vegetable-marrow. In a state of nature the sea-cows crop the 

 marine vegetation which fringes their native shores. The remaining 

 outward features of interest in these creatures may be summed up by 

 saying that no back fins are developed ; that the eyes are very small 

 and inconspicuous; and that, although the anterior nostrils are never 

 used as " blowholes," they can be closed at will like the nostrils of the 

 seals a faculty of needful kind in aquatic animals. To the technical 

 anatomist, the sea-cows present strong points of resemblance to some 

 of the hoofed quadrupeds. The anatomical examination of these ani- 

 mals has shown that their peculiarities are not limited to their out- 

 ward appearance and habits. It is not generally known, for example, 

 that the neck of the vast majority of mammals consists of seven ver- 

 tebrae or segments of the spine. Man thus possesses this number in 



