200 I\IAMMALS. 



Another species is said to occur in the river Niger and its tributaries. We owe the fii'st notice 

 of this to Dr. Barth, and the first description of it to the unfortunate Dr. Vogel, who was murdered 

 not long after he had sent home an accoimt of it. The following is the gist of what we know about it. 



In 1851, while Dr. Barth was journeying towards the country of the Adamawa in Central 

 Africa, he heard from the natives accounts of an animal named by them Ayu (erroneously written 

 Ajah), and which was said to frequent the rivers and marshes. He heard of the same animal under 

 the same name also up the river Kwora or Niger below Timbuktu, and he believes that it also exists in 

 the river Shari, which runs into the marshy Lake Tschad. Dr. Barth not having been able to satisfy 

 himself about this creature, directed Dr. Vogel's attention to it, and the latter gentleman fortunately 

 met with a specimen in SejDtember, 1855, in the upper part of the Binue or Tsadda ; and an account 

 of this Ayu having been sent by him to England, j^nd read at the British Association Meeting 

 at Cheltenham, Professor Owen thought that it presented sufficient peculiarities to allow of its being 

 distinguished as a new species, which he named Manatus Vogehi. 



From Dr. Vogel's description it appears that it passes its time in the marshes inundated by the 

 river. With the subsidence of the waters the animal retires down the river to the ocean ; but re- 

 appears in the commencement of the rainy season with the rising waters, bringing with it one or two 

 young, at that period from three or four feet in length. Its food consists chiefly of grass. The 

 Ajah. reaches ten feet in length, and becomes exceedingly fat. Its flesh and fat are like those of the 

 hog — very well tasted. Its bones are as hard as ivory, and whips are made from the skin. It 

 ajjpears to be rare, for in the three months it remains on the Binue seldom more than twenty or 

 thirty are taken. 



Dr. Balfour Baikie made every exertion to meet with it, but without success. He tells us that he 

 obtained a head of the known species of Manatee from a Dju-dju, or sacred heap, near a miserable 

 village on one of tlie intcruiinable dreary creeks at the mouth of the Niger ; but during the months 

 of September and October when he ascended the river he saw or heard of none. This may have been 

 the time when the beast was absent in salt water. I believe he was more successful afterwards, but 

 his untimely death has prevented any jjublication of his success, or of his opinion whether it is a 

 good species or not. 



The authorit}' for the new species in the meantihie is rather meagre — resting entirely on poor 

 Dr. Vogel's description, and unauthenticated by the examination of specimens by competent authorities 

 Professor Owen's endorsation is not very decided ; all that he says is that it may be a distinct and 

 somewhat smaller species than the Senegalensis, and that the chief indication of specific distinctness 

 is the closer approximation of the eyes to the nostrils and to the end of the snout, as shown by the 

 admeasurement given by Dr. Vogel. 



It may very probably be that the M. Senegalensis ascends the rivers of Africa as the South 

 American species ascends the Amazon and Oronoko. 



Should it prove to be a distinct species it will, from Dr. Vogel's account, be found in the same 

 seas as those which the Senecjalensis has hitherto been supposed alone to occupy; and we may 

 find on a more careful examination of specimens and their respective localities that, on this as on 

 the other side of the Atlantic one species occupies the more northern ground and the other the 

 more southern. 



The interest attaching to tliis animal would be still greater shoidd the icmuinder of Dr. 

 Barth's report prove true, and it be found that the animal exists in the river Shari, which runs 

 into the marshy Lake Tschad. This lalce, including of course ils tributaries, has no communication 



