11 





i:.\. 



911 



Th mild innoffonsire manners of the Manatee, and the unsuspect- 

 ing nature of the -nim* 1 . make it an easy prey to the huiiter, who 

 pursues it for the lake of the flesh, which all pronounce to be excel- 

 lent, both fresh and salted. Heraaodei compare* it to well fatted 

 pork of pleasant flavour. Other* compare it, when roasted, to beef 

 or veal in flavour, and itate that when salted it make* excellent Ma 



j,;-.,.- : ; 



It U alleged that formerly they were BO plentiful within ten or twelve 

 leagues of Cayenne, that a large boat might be filled with them in a 

 single day, when their flesh was sold in the market at about 3d. perlb. 

 But the eagerness with which it was purchased soon reduced the 

 numbers, and made them comparatively scarce. 



The capture is generally effected by means of the harpoon. At 

 St. Domingo the hunters approached them in a small boat, and 

 struck them with a large harpoon to which a long stout cord was 

 made fast The stricken animal made violent efforts to escape, 

 carrying with it the harpoon and cord, to the end of which a cork or 

 piece of light wood to serve as a buoy was attached, and indicated 

 the whereabouts of the Manatee. After a while the hunters took hold 

 of the rope and at last drew the exhausted animal on shore, wher 

 it was killed. The sport of Manatee-catching, thus conducted, is 

 described as highly exciting, but the boat in sometimes upset by the 

 straggles of the animal in the shoals. 



Manatees have reached Europe. The carcass of one which had 

 been long dead, is recorded to have come on shore at Newhavi u in 

 the Frith of Forth, in the autumn of 1785 ; and Duhamel states that 

 one with its cub was thrown on shore near Dieppe. 



projected from their sockets. Not more than 20 grinders, 5 on each 

 side of the jaw, appear to be developed in this animal. 



The Manatee (llanalus atutralii). 



if. Sentgaletuit, the Lamantin. This species is a native of the 

 west coast of Africa. It is the Maiuttni Senegaktuu of Desmarest ; 

 Lamantin of Adanson ; Lamantin du Senegal of Daubenton ; the 

 Woman-Fish of Purchas ; the Bound-Tailed Manati of Pennant 



llalicort Dugong, Indian Dugong. It is the Trichechui Dugong of 

 Omelin ; Dugngut Indicia of Hamilton ; Le Dugong des Indes of 

 French writers. 



The head of this Diigong is small in proportion to the body, which 

 in general form much resembles that of the Manatee. The Urge 

 upper lip is thick and obliquely truncated, and the truncated surface, 

 which forms the short and nearly vertical snout, is furnished with 

 soft papilla; and a few bristles. A homy substance covers the lips, 

 the upper of which is very moveable and tumid on the edge ; the 

 lower is much smaller, resembling a round or oblong chin. The* 

 inside of the cheeks is furnished with strong projecting bristles. The 

 nostrils are situated on the summit of the upper jaw, where it curve* 

 downwards, and penetrate obliquely, so that the upper seiniltinar 

 edge presses upon the lower surface to form a valve capable of being 

 shut at the will of the animal The eyes are small The little 

 aperture of the ear is hardly perceptible. The mamma are placed on 

 the chest, beneath the thick and fleshy flippers or paws, which are 

 rather warty on their anterior edge ; but there is no appearance of 

 noils. The tail is broad, and located or crescent-shaped. The skin is 

 three-quarters of an inch thick, of a uniform bluish colour, sometimes 

 blotched with white below. Length from 7 to 8 feet 



The attention of Professor Owen was particularly directed to the 

 state of the dentition of the Dugongs of different sexes which he 

 examined, from which it appeared that, as in the Narwhal, the pcrma- 

 nent tusks of the female are arrested in their growth, and remain 

 throughout life concealed within the substance of the intermaxillary 

 bones and the alveolar integument The cavity of the tusks, he 

 states, is in like manner filled up by the secretion of the pulp which 

 retrogrades in the course of its absorption, and hence the tusks are 

 solid, like the corresponding tusks in the female Narwhal, or at least 

 present only a shallow cavity at their expanded and distorted base. 

 II. found in one cranium of a male Dugong. in tin- upper jaw, the 

 deciduous incisors or tusks co-existing with the permanent ones. In 



; ; 

 the skull of a mole which had , '-, molars, the sockets of the deci- 



O 



duous incisor* were obliterated, and the points of the permanent ones 



Teeth of Dugong (Halicore Duyonf). K. Cuvirr. 



" It is obvious," says Professor Owen, " that the different form and 

 condition of the tusks thus observed in the heads of Dugongs 

 same size and age, might be regarded as indicating unload 



of a sexual difference. Dr. Knox inclines to tin- fonm-r opinion ; I 

 have however adopted the latter view, not hastily or hypotlietirally, 

 but as a result of the minute comparison of the forms and proportions 

 of all the crania which have come under my observation." 



11. l>ugong is an inhabitant of the Indian Ocean. 



" The external form of the Dugong," says Professor Owen, " in not 

 so well calculated for moving rapidly through the water as that of the 

 Dolphin and other Carnivorous Cetacea, which subsist by u pcrp. -tual 

 pursuit of liviug animals. In these the snout is conical and peculiarly 

 elongated, and in some, as the Dtlphinu* O'anyetictu, the jaws ore pro- 

 duced to an extreme length, so as to give them every advantage in 

 seizing their swift and slippery prey ; whilst in the herbiferous 

 Dugong the snout is as remarkable for its obtuse truncate character 

 a form however which is equally advantageous to it, and well adapted 

 to its habits of browsing upon the Alga and Pud which grow upon 

 the submarine rocks of the Indian seas. As, from the fixed nature of 

 the Dugong's food, the motions of the animal during the time of feed- 

 ing must relate more immediately to the necessity of coming to the 

 surface to respire, its tail, the principal locomotive organ of ascent 

 and descent, is proportionally greater than in the true Cetacea, its 

 breadth being rather more than one-third the length of the whole 

 body. But tie most important external differences ore seen in the 

 presence of the membrona uictitans, in the anterior position of the 

 nostrils, and in the situation of the mammae, which are pectoral, or 

 rather axillary, being situated just behind the root* of the flippers : 

 in the female specimen examined, their base was about the size of a 

 shilling, and they projected about half an inch from the surface. A 

 rable ridge extends along the middle of the upper surface of 

 the posterior part of the back, which is continued upon and terminates 

 in the tail." 



The haunts of the Dugong, which does not appear ever to frequent 

 the land or fresh-water, are generally in the sea-shallows, where the 

 water is not more than two or three fathoms. 



Sir Stamford Raffles states that during six months four of these 

 animals were secured at Singapore, but that the greatest number i 

 to be taken during the northern monsoon, when the sen ix m< >-t <-alm, 

 near the mouth of the Johore River. They are usually caught, l.y 

 spearing, in which feat the natives are very expert, during the night, 

 when the animals indicate their approach by a snuffing n.iise winch 

 they make at the surface of the water. The first object of tin- captor 

 is to secure and elevate the tail, when the animal becomes pert'. < t ly 

 iHiwerless. Sir Stamford adds, that the Dugongs are seldom caught, 

 t Singapore above 8 or 9 feet in length ; bat how loach larger thy 

 grow is not ascertained, as when they exceed that si/.c, their sup. -nor 

 strength enables them to make their escape. 



Leguat, who speaks of them as occurring at the Isle of Kran.-e in 

 mat numbers about 120 years ago, says that they were 20 feet long, 

 but were very easily taken. They fed in Hocks like sheep m three or 

 four fathoms' water, and made no attempt at escape when appr- 

 Sometimes they were shot at the end of the nmxk. 

 hold of and forced on shore. Three or four lmndiv.1 wen met. w ith 



i and they were so far from shy t \ Bkwd them 



to be handled, and the fattest were tlius selected The 

 were avoided, not only. . t of the troiiMe they gave in the 



