THE MANATEE. 399 



bristles on the muzzle ; traces of four small nails can be detected on the 

 flippers. 



The Manatee, Manatiis Aiistralis (Plate XXX), attains the length of 

 nine feet, on the coast of Brazil. Our first accurate knowledge of the 

 animal is due to the great traveler, Humboldt, who dissected one cap- 

 tured in the lower Orinoco. He observed that the Manatees prefer to 

 linger in parts of the sea where fresh water springs arise, as in the Bay 

 of Jagua in Cuba, and are very common in the Amazon, the Orinoco, 

 and its tributaries. As all these southern rivers are rich in quiet nooks 

 where water-plants of all kinds grow, they have no need to swim to any 

 great distances ; they eat ravenously, and when their hunger is satisfied, 

 they lie in shallow places with the snout out of the water ; they are thus 

 saved the trouble of diving and rising, and sleep tranquilly for hours. 

 During their waking time, they only come to the surface to breathe, but 

 this emergence from the water occurs very often. 



In all places whei^e the Manatee is found, it is eagerly pursued. Its 

 flesh is compared by Humboldt to pork, but is said to be unwhole- 

 some, and to produce fever. Salted and dried, it can be kept for a 

 whole year, and like the flesh of the Cetacea, it is allowed as an article of 

 food in Lent. The mode of taking the animal is very simple. A canoe 

 approaches the feeding-grounds, and waits till one rises to take breath. 

 As it appears, arrows with light wooden buoys fastened to them by cords 

 are discharged at it, or it is harpooned. In the latter case an ingenious 

 method of getting the body on board is adopted. The boat is filled two- 

 thirds with water, and pushed under the dead Manatee, after which the 

 water is baled out again by a calabash. The end of the inundations is a 

 favorable season for its capture, and the Jesuits used to organize hunts 

 on a large scale. The oil obtained from the carcass has not the offensive 

 odor of train oil ; the hide is manufactured into whips, from which the 

 luckless Indians of the Missions used to suffer. 



The Manatee is susceptible of domestication. The old traveler of the 

 sixteenth century, Peter Martyr, writes : " A cacique in San Domingo 

 has a little fish named Manato, which is quite tame, comes when called, 

 eats bread out of the hand, allows itself to be stroked, and will carry 

 people on its back across the pond in which it is kept." Gomara adds 

 that it lived twenty-sis years, crawled on dry land up to the house for 

 food, and then back to the lake accompanied by boys, whose singing 

 pleased it. It once carried ten people on its back across the water. 



