234 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



should. Then the largest stretched up as far as 

 any manatee can ever leave the water, and caught 

 and munched a drooping sprig of bamboo. 

 Watching the great pufFmg lips, we again 

 thought of walruses; but only a caterpillar could 

 emulate that sideways mumbling — the strangest 

 mouth of any mammal. But from behind, the 

 rounded head, the shapely neck, tlie little baby 

 manatee held carefully in the curve of a flipper, 

 made legends of mermaids seem very reason- 

 able; and if I had been an early voyageuVy I 

 should assuredly have had stories to tell of mer- 

 kiddies as well. As we watched, the young one 

 played about, slowly and deliberately, without 

 frisk or gambol, but determinedly, intently, as 

 if realizing its duty to an abstract conception of 

 youth and warm-blooded mammalness. 



The earth holds few breathing beings stranger 

 than these manatees. Their life is a slow pro- 

 gression through muddy water from one bed of 

 lilies or reeds to another. Every few minutes, 

 day and night, year after year, they come to the 

 surface for a lungful of the air which they must 

 have, but in which they cannot live. In place of 

 hands they have flippers, which paddle them lei- 

 surely along, which also serve to hold the infant 



