56 



THE SEA COWS 



in the Museum of the Academy of Sciences of San Fran- 

 cisco, before its destruction, from which an idea could be 

 obtained of the appearance of this strange animal. 



The skin was very thick and leathery. The fore limbs 

 were like paddles, without fingers. The jaws were tooth- 

 less, their place seemingly taken by two horny plates, one 

 covering the palate, one in the lower jaw, showing that 

 the rhytina, like the manatee and dugong of to-day, 

 browsed upon seaweed. 



Fig. 39. —The Manatee. 



In 1 74 1 these animals were discovered by Steller at 

 Berings Island, and in 1769, twenty-eight years later, the 

 last of the race had been destroyed, and the name joined 

 to the large list which includes also the great auk, the 

 buffalo, the dodo, and others either extinct or soon to pass 

 away. But two representatives of this group of animals 

 are alive to-day, the manatee of Florida (Fig. 39) being 

 the best known ; but even this is on the verge of exter- 

 mination. 



The manatee is found from the region of the Amazon 



