794 



C E T A C E A. 



which is to be met with among animals frequenting the 

 water. Among the native mammalia of South Ame- 

 rica they are the ones whose flesh is most abundant 

 in quality, and also most palatable for human food, 

 and for these reasons they are the most valuable to 

 man. 



In the course of the present work we have fre- 

 quently had to remark upon the very peculiar charac- 

 ters of this part of the world in particular, that 

 many parts, especially of the great tropical valleys, 

 are alternately parched land and fresh-water sea. 

 Such a state of things is perfectly inconsistent with 

 the existence of browsing animals with the rumi- 

 nantia, which are found in most other parts of the 

 world. It is, as it were, the extreme of vegetable 

 feeding, where not only the semi-aquatic buffalo, but 

 even the hippopotamus, must give way, as they 

 would be subject to starvation at one season, and to 

 drowning at another ; for, when the rains come, there 

 is too great a breadth of the country laid under water 

 for allowing any animal which walks the bottom to 

 subsist. This is farther increased by the quantities 

 of weed and sludge, in which the feet of a walking 

 animal would stick beyond the possibility of extrica- 

 tion. 



We have this partially in the tropical parts of Asia 

 and of Africa, but nowhere to the same extent as in 

 South America. We have, accordingly, herbivorous 

 cetacea in those places, but they are nowhere so 

 numerous, or so exclusively the herbivorous animals 

 of the valleys, as in the case of South America, 

 where the principal grazing animal is committed to 

 the water as its general habitation, and its means of 

 transport from place to place. The power of swim- 

 ming which these animals possess not only renders 

 them quite safe from those casualties to which rumi- 

 nant ajiimals would be subjected when the rains and 

 inundations come, but it gives them a facility and a 

 range in their migrations in quest of food which not 

 even the fleetest of the antelopes, or any of the 

 mammalia which walk upon the earth, can possess. 

 These last are hemmed in by the mountain ridges, by 

 the deserts, and even by the larger rivers, and their 

 march is laborious, and their food often scanty. The 

 manati, on the other hand, launched upon the water, 

 buoyant, and at home in that element, can, without 

 any fatigue, migrate for thousands of miles whenever 

 such migrations become necessary. In these ex- 

 tended marches they are not restrained even by the 

 sea ; for although, as we have already said, it is not 

 very probable that vegetable feeders shall range the 

 breadth of the ocean, yet it is certain that these 

 animals often pass along the shores to very consider- 

 able distances. 



They also have this advantage, that they are far 

 more certain of provision by the way than the walk- 

 ing animals which migrate on land. In tropical 

 countries there is never any barrenness if there is 

 water, whether that water be a lake, a stream, or the 

 sea ; and thus the animals in question can always 

 approach the bank, and feed whenever a supply is 

 required. 



When full grown, in places which are favourable 

 for them, these animals are very large, generally 

 more than fifteen feet in length, and sometimes twenty 

 or upwards. They are gregarious, and often found 

 in numerous herds, especially on the low meadows 

 by the banks of the Amazon, where the soil is humid 

 and the vegetation rich. They are gentle in their 



dispositions, and it docs not appear that they offer 

 violence to any creature ; and when they arc 

 threatened with danger they move off for the water. 

 The females have generally two at a birth, and the 

 period of gestation is said to be about twelve months. 

 The largest of these animals, that is to say, those 

 which are about twenty feet in length, weigh between 

 three and four tons ; the swimming paws are rather 

 less than a fourth of the whole length from the point 

 of the muzzle ; the skin is of a deep blackish grey 

 colour, slightly granulated on its surface, and having 

 a few scattered hairs here and there, though very 

 few, with the exception of those which form the 

 mustachios. 



The manati of Africa is smaller than that of Ame- 

 rica, being seldom more than about eight feet long 

 and seventy or eighty pounds in weight. Its colour 

 is blackish ash, with the iris of the eye blueish. The 

 bones of the head are said to be shorter in proportion 

 to the length of the animal, and the different parts 

 are said to be more marked. The differences are, 

 however, comparatively small, and the habits of both 

 are nearly the same. 



The Dugong (Halcione daughter of the sea). 

 This is much more a marine animal than the manati ; 

 and though it ascends the larger rivers to some dis- 

 tance, it is chiefly found in the salt water, arid its 

 principal food is understood to be sea-weed. It is 

 found chiefly on the south-east of Asia. The name 

 " dugong " is said to be Malay, and to have much 

 the same meaning in that language as " sea-cow." 

 Illiger's generic name Halicorc, of which " sen-lass " 

 is perhaps the best English translation, is not very 

 applicable ; but the animal certainly claims to be 

 made a distinct genus from the manati. 



There are some differences in the skeletons, as for 

 instance, the dugong has a pair of ribs more, a greater 

 number of vertebra in the tail ; the nidi mental pelvis 

 rather more developed, and also the clavicles. The 

 principal differences, however, occur in the teeth ; 

 the cheek teeth of the dugong consist of two cones 

 united together, and with their tips flattened and 

 formed into small tubercles, and the teeth in the fore 

 part of the jaw do not perish early in life like those 

 of the manati ; they continue and become true tusks, 

 firm and sharp-pointed, but concealed by the thick 

 and fleshy upper lip. These lips are granulated in 

 their appearance ; the upper one projects so far over 

 the lower as completely to cover the opening in front, 

 and the extremity of it is, in part at least, prehensile. 

 The whole animal is covered with a thick skin of a 

 blueish grey colour, with spots of a darner tint on the 

 Hanks, and white spots on the belly. The muzzle is 

 beset with hairs intermixed with horny spines, those on 

 the lips being about an inch long. Those parts of 

 the jaws with which it seizes the sea-weed and other 

 plants on which it feeds are beset with horny tuber- 

 cles ; and it is probable that it also uses the tusks of 

 the upper jaw in loosening the sea-weed from the 

 rocks. The eyes are very small, and covered with a 

 third eyelid ; the ear-openings are exceedingly small, 

 and the nostrils are on the tip of the muzzle, so that 

 the animal can breathe freely with the whole of the 

 feeding apparatus under water. 



This animal is found in the greater part of the 

 Indian ocean, and the south and west of the Pacific. 

 Its head quarters may be considered the oriental 

 archipelago ; but it is understood to shift with the 

 monsoons, being more abundant on the east of the 



