322 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



can be said of this Manatee, who is almost helpless on 

 land, being unable to raise his solid, sloping body on his 

 flippers, though when he is in the water his fat acts as 

 a life-buoy, and his wide, round tail makes him an ex- 

 pert swimmer. If you could see his skeleton you would 

 notice that his flippers are really arms coming from 

 flat shoulder blades, and ending in five-fingered hands 

 which the flesh hides. Also, that instead of strong teeth 

 for eating flesh, he has small weak teeth fit only for 

 chewing vegetable food. Uncouth as the Manatee is, 

 he yields three valuable things, — good oil, good meat, 

 and good leather, and, if protected, would have been of 

 great use to the people of the coast streams of Florida, 

 where he lives. 



" Though the Manatee spends its life in water, it 

 cannot stay under water more than five or six minutes 

 at a time, and when it comes up to breathe it gives 

 people a chance to shoot it. Sometimes, however, it is 

 caught in heavy nets spread across the rivers that are 

 its favorite feeding grounds. While eating, the Manatee 

 floats, using his flippers like fans to guide the long sea 

 grasses and water plants, among wliicli he often hides, 

 to his mouth. People think that early mariners, in 

 looking down through clear southern waters, saw this 

 monster floating upright and waving its flippers, as it 

 looked up through the swaying grasses that surrounded 

 it like long hair. Being surprised and very much 

 frightened, they lost no time, on going back to shore, in 

 spreading tales of the beautiful mermaids they had seen 

 combing their hair and riding under water on the backs 

 of Dolphins, while they sang sweet luring music. We 

 can see for ourselves how much mistaken thev were. 



