NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Under this Department Heading queries relative to Angling, Ichthyology and Fish Culture, 



will be answered,] 



Personal From the Editor. 



Dear Sir and Bro. Angler : 



Owing to the delay In returning from an ex- 

 tended fish painting tour along the Pacific 

 Slope, I am compelled regretfully to ask you 

 to pardon the lapse of time in the issues of The 

 American Angler. I am now at the editorial 

 desk, and you will have received the October- 

 November issue — a double number — in which 

 yoti will find a large increase of reading mat- 

 ter, the quality of which, I hope, will condone 

 for the delay in publication. The December 

 and January numbers — separate issues — are 

 .now in the printer's hands and will be speedily 

 issued. 



On a7td after January i, iSgj, the American 

 Angler will be exclusively devoted to angling 

 and its cogitate themes, and the subscription 

 price "will be reditced to One Dollar. 



In view of my long service and your interest 

 in my work in this special field of unprofitable 

 journalism, I am led to hope that you will aid 

 me by your continued subscription and those 

 of your angling friends. In this connection I 

 also beg to state that my labors, as author of 

 " The Fishes of North America," are about 

 ended. They compelled my absence for long 

 periods from the editorial desk of The Ameri- 

 can Angler to visit distant angling waters of 

 the United States and Canada, for the purpose 

 of getting oil portraits of fishes, when alive, 

 for lithographic reproduction in vn.y book. 

 This materially interfered with my editorial 

 work on The American Angler ; but I am 

 now relieved in a great measure from this ex- 

 tra dt:ty, and I hope you and I will fish to- 

 gether pleasantl}^ and profitably for many 

 years to come. Yours fraternally, with 

 Christmas greetings, Wm. C. Harris. 



New York, Dec. 2S, 1896. 



NOTES ON THE MANATEE OR 

 SEA-COW. 



The manatee, or sea-cow, is becoming 

 gradually extinct in America. One 

 species which was confined to the Arc- 

 tic seas and most plentiful about Kam- 

 schatka, Alaska, has, it is said, become 

 extinct, and it is even claimed that it 

 has not been captured in this century. 

 The only specimen in America is now 

 confined to the Florida coast and south 

 to the Amazon. Along the Indian 

 River* the species was formerly com- 

 mon and is still occasionally seen. 

 Owing to the fact that it inhabits salt 

 water and comparatively open places it 

 is easily followed and taken. I am in- 

 formed that it prefers lagoons and the 

 mouths of rivers, where it feeds on the 

 vegetation growing in the water ; the 

 usual species of grass or seaweed pre- 

 ferred being known as manatee grass. 

 This aquatic grass grows on the bottom 

 of brackish rivers and in the edges 

 of the sea. The manatee ( TricJicehiis 

 manatiis) resembles somewhat in con- 

 formation the dolphin or whale. It is 

 not a fish, but a mammal, and bears 

 young, which it suckles as does the 

 whale. Its flippers and tail make its 

 skeleton in general appearance like the 

 whale, but its skull is of a decidedly 

 different form, and the brain cavity is 

 much larger proportionately, showing 

 a higher development. 



Manatees are occasionally taken alive 

 and sometimes exhibited in captivity. 



* The Indian River is simply a lagoon of salt water 

 separated from the Atlantic by a narrow strip of land 

 over one hundred and fifty miles long. 



