54 



employed in this country to meet the demand for the oil, which being 

 carefully prepared, is said to possess all those remedial properties for 

 which the cod-liver oil has become so noted. 



Dr. Hobbs, of Brisbane, has the merit of first introducing this 

 valuable commodity to notice, and it is much to be regretted that his 

 enterprise has been cramped by the difficulty of procuring the Dugong 

 in sufficient numbers, now that it has the experience of the ways of 

 man. 



Sir James Emerson Tennent, in his "Ceylon," states that the dugong 

 there, while nursing, carries her offspring under one of her nippers, 

 where the teat is situated, in such a position that the head of the 

 young creature and her own are maintained above the water. 



The Malays make frequent allusion to this animal as an example of 

 maternal affection : when they succeed in taking a young one, they feel 

 themselves certain of the mother, for she follows it, and allows herself 

 to be speared and taken almost without resistance. 



HALICOEE TABEENACULi, 1 Eiippell. Abyssinian Dungog. 



" Observed by Dr. Eiippell swimming among the coral banks on the 

 coast of Abyssinia." 



" The Arabs stated that they live in pairs, 2 or small families ; that 

 they have feeble voices ; feed on algae ; and that in February and March 

 bloody battles take place between the males, which attain to eighteen 

 feet." Penny Cyclopedia. 



G-enus HALiTHEEiuM, 3 Kaup. 



The more perfect remains which have been exhumed of this genus 

 exhibit the osseous characters of the frame, similar to, and a cranium of 

 very nearly the same form as the Dugong. The upper incisors assume 

 the form of tusks, while the lower ones are very small ; the molars, 

 however, approach nearer in structure to those of the Manatee, but 

 their margins are deeply festooned ; of these, the upper have three 

 tuberculated ridges, the lower two ; all of the superior teeth are pro- 

 vided with three roots, and the inferior with two, the last of which is 

 strongly fanged. The rib bones are solid, not porous or spongy. 



These remains have been found principally in France, imbedded in the 

 deposits of the upper Eocene groups, and those of the Meiocene period ; 

 and one species was discovered at Piedmont, in the Pleiocene beds. 

 From their marked analogy with the osseous characters of the Sirenoids, 



1 Of the tabernacle. So called by Dr. Eiippell from the notion that the Jews 

 employed the skin in veiling the tabernacle. 



2 See habits of the Khytina Stelleri, p. 56. 



3 &Ay, the sea, and dypiov, animal. 



