542 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



is excellent; the thick chunks of flesh . . . corn well, and 

 may be jerked or smoke-dried. When roasted, fried, or stewed, 

 the flesh remains tender and holds its gamey taste, with none 

 of the tough dryness of turtle nor the oily fishiness of porpoise 

 meat. " The cylindrical stapes of the inner ear are saved by 

 the Nicaraguans as charms against ill-luck. Near one end of 

 the stapes there is a natural perforation, which facilitates 

 stringing it; unless these bones are kept in the mouth an hour 

 or so it is believed that the hole will close up and thus "spoil 

 the charm's power" (Barrett, 1935). 



More than two centuries ago Dampier, the famous bucca- 

 neer, found manatees common along the coasts of the Carib- 

 bean Sea from the Gulf of Campeche to Nicaragua and western 

 Panama. Goldman (1920) has quoted from his account, 

 which describes the method of harpooning them from canoes, 

 and tells that two natives from the coast brought him two 

 manatees every day for a week as provisions, for "the flesh is 

 white, both the fat and the lean, and extraordinary sweet 

 wholesome meat." At Bocas del Toro, where Dampier once 

 found them so common, Goldman writes in 1920 that manatees 

 are still "occasionally reported by native boatmen. The 

 species has probably become scarce here as in many other 

 localities where it was formerly common." He adds that he 

 has no record of it from any other part of the Panama coast, 

 but Dr. Maack in 1874 reported it as frequently caught by the 

 natives in the Atrato and the Cacarica Rivers, in eastern 

 Panama. In 1868 von Frantzius wrote that they were still 

 very common along the shores of Costa Rica, passing into 

 some of the larger rivers. They were found abundantly in the 

 San Juan and neighboring streams as the Rio Colorado, 

 Sarapiqui, and San Carlos; but the rapids near the mouth of 

 the last-named prevent them from ascending far up the river 

 or passing into Lake Nicaragua. 



Along the northern coast of South America manatees occur 

 still in some numbers as far east as the Guianas, especially 

 about the mouths of rivers. Carriker writes that in Colombia 

 they are not now much persecuted, though occasionally one is 

 killed by the natives for food. He mentions a group reported 

 from the Cienaga Grande, a lagoon on the coast between Santa 

 Marta and Barranquilla. Manatees occur in the Orinoco and, 

 in former times at least, on the Venezuelan coast, for True 



