152 Journal of Travel and Natural History 



but there is nothing very extraordinary in this. It is known to 

 ascend the Niger and its tributaries ; a young specimen, of which 

 the skull was sent home from thence, having been described by 

 Prof Owen under the name of Manatus Vogelii; and the feeders of 

 Lake Tsad arise in the same tract of level, spongy country as some 

 of the tributaries of the Niger. In the rainy season the whole country 

 there is overflowed, and a boat can pass from the tributaries of the 

 one system into those of the other. 



We have, moreover, elsewhere* recorded (on the authority of 

 Dr Kirk) the probable occurrence of a manatee in Lake Shirwa. 

 Like Heuglin, Dr Kirk only spoke from report — but he believed 

 the report \ and if it were true, the remarkable thing is, that 

 although the lake communicates with the sea, it is above the 

 Murchison Falls, which it is perfectly impossible any fish or water 

 animal ever could have surmounted. If it is a manatee the expla- 

 nation of its presence there must be sought for in geological changes 

 of level. 



It is right to say, with regard to the supposed occurrence of the 

 manatee in Lake Tana, that Dr Fitzinger, in a paper in which he, 

 from the information communicated by Von Heuglin, enumer- 

 ates with details the species of mammals found in the north-east 

 coast of Africa, considers the information a mere fable. After 

 speaking of the Dugong, which occurs in the Red Sea and along 

 the shores of the Indian Ocean, and which the species in the 

 Tana Sea would most probably be, (the West African manatee, 

 although it rounds Cape Horn, and has been met with as far north 

 as the mouth of the Zambesi, not appearing to have been met 

 with further to the north) — he adds the following "Note — In Dem- 

 bee Sea" (Tana Sea), " according to the assertion of the natives, a 

 marine mammal occurs, which they distinguish by the Amharisch 

 name of ' Ja-baher-dedja ' (sea calf) or 'aila.' Apparently this 

 report is founded only on a fable." — (Fitzinger in Sitzungberichte 

 der Kaiserl. Academic der Wissenschaften, Wien, 1866. liv. 4 

 and 5, page 610). Von Heuglin, however, from whom Fitzinger 

 had his information, does not regard it as a fable, for he has re- 

 I)eated it without any indication of mistrust — indeed, rather the 

 reverse, for his words arc, " Wie ich schon berichtet habe," (as I 

 am well informed). 



The inquiry leads to another important question, and that is 



Murray's "Geographical T^istribution of Mammals," p. 120. 



