SCULPTURES. 253 



Senigaleiuis, Desm.) which has a round tail, and is distinguished as the " round- 

 tailed manitus." It is smaller in size than the other variety. 



The name of Manati was given to this animal by the Spaniards in consequence 

 of the short anterior extremities, which were regarded as hands. It has been 

 found difficult to assign a place to it in the animal creation, and it has been 

 remarked that it " may be indiscriminately called the last of beasts or the first of 

 fishes." It has two pectoral or abdominal mammae, which from their position 

 probably gave rise among mariners to the fable of the mermaid. Columbus, when 

 he first saw these animals in the West Indies, called them sirens. They bring 

 forth two young ones at a birth ; in defence of which the manitus, though a peaceable 

 and harmless animal, is insensible to pain or fear. Its habits are little understood. 

 It is supposed never to leave the water, but frequents the shores to feed on the 

 grass at the edge. Sea-grass or fucus and marine herbage are supposed to 

 constitute its principal if not its only food ; though this is a point upon which 

 naturalists have not ventured to give a decision. The opinion, however, seems 

 general, that it is an herbivorous animal. 



As before observed, the manitus is found only in tropical waters, frequenting 

 the mouths of rivers, but sometimes ascending them to great distances. They 

 were seen by Humboldt in the Rio Meta, a branch of the Orinoco, one thousand 

 miles above its mouth; and it is said they are found in the Amazon two thousand 

 miles from the sea. They are also found among the Antilles on the southern 

 coast of Mexico, and on the coast and in the rivers of Florida, in the United 

 States. Excepting upon that peninsula, we have no account of their occurrence 

 on our coasts. Bartram mentions a singular spring, a few miles below Tallahassee, 

 Florida, which was frequented by the manitus ; and its bones are found, and occa- 

 sional living specimens observed, in the Manitee river, which enters Tampa bay.* 



The flesh of this animal was used by the Indians for food, and its bones and 

 thick tough hide employed in various manufactui-es. It was hunted for these pur- 

 poses ; and Oviedo, who seems to have been the first author who noticed it, gives 

 a particular account of the manner in which it was captured. Bartram observes : 



" The basin and stream were continually peopled with prodigious numbers and 

 varieties of fish and other animals, such as the alligator, and, in the winter season, 

 the manate or sea-cow. Parts of the skeleton of one which the Indians had killed 

 last winter, lay upon the banks of the spring ; the grinding teeth were about an 

 inch in diameter, the ribs eighteen inches long and two and a half inches in thick- 

 ness, bending with a gentle curve. This bone is esteemed equal to ivory. The 

 flesh of this creature is counted wholesome and pleasant food ; the Indians call 

 them by a name which signifies ' the big beaver.' My companion, who was a 

 trader, saw three of them at one time near this spring ; they feed chiefly on 

 aquatic grass and weeds."! 



* Observations ou the Geology of East Florida, by T. A. Coni-ud. Silliman's Joiimul of Arts and 

 Sciences for July, 1846. 



•)• Bavtrani's Travels in North America, p. 29y. 



