AND MANATEES 



hut those which live wholly in fresh water. One of them, 

 the Inia, inhabits the upper waters of the Amazon and 

 some of the lakes round about; its length varies from 

 seven to twelve feet, and it differs little from the common 

 dolphin except in having a longer and more pointed 

 snout. The Indians and Bolivians pursue it for the sake 

 of its flesh and its valuable oil. Before daybreak a small 

 fleet of canoes will set off up the river and, hiding under 

 the gloomy, overhanging trees, wait for the inia to come 

 up to feed. As soon as one of them appears, two or 

 three harpoons are launched at it, for only by swift kill- 

 ing can the men hope to make a fairly good catch. The 

 animals do not come in shoals ; seldom will there be more 

 than a dozen in one place, and at the least noise these 

 will dive, reappearing nobody knows where ; so the 

 fishermen dare not use guns. All the harpoons thrown at 

 one animal must come from the same boat, for he is not 

 averse to doing a little towing, and though if he found 

 three boat-loads moored to him he could not do them 

 much harm, the noise he would make would alarm the 

 other animals, and spoil the chances of the remaining 

 boats. When a boat has killed her catch she paddles 

 silently and rapidly away, towing the inia close behind, 

 a man being stationed in the stern with a long lance to 

 keep off the alligators that might try for a mouthful of 

 the carcass. 



A very similar cetacean of the same size, called the 

 Soosoo, is found in the Ganges, where it affords amusement 

 to British sportsmen, and profit to such of the Hindus as 

 take the trouble to hunt it. 



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