OCEANIC MAMMALS 549 



or driven out," notwithstanding that it is now "totally pro- 

 tected." He mentions that a party of Ijaw fishermen had 

 constructed a trap in which during the first year nearly 40 

 manatees were killed, in the second year 6, and in the third 

 none. How large an area of the Izichi River this trap affected 

 is unknown, but "the fact remains that from a yearly average 

 of 15 to 20 brought into Agulerie up to 1932, a few only were 

 obtained in 1933, and none "the year following, so that they 

 must either have been killed out or driven away. " Ordinarily, 

 in this district, the manatees are killed with spears at night 

 after being attracted to baits of freshly cut grass. "Calves" 

 are occasionally netted. On the other hand, according to 

 Woods, some native tribes hold the manatee in superstitious 

 awe, believing it is certain death to even see one; while others 

 hold special ceremonies over the dead body. He believes that 

 they are probably still numerous in most of the larger rivers of 

 southern Nigeria, but since the meat of a single animal may 

 bring from five to eight pounds sterling, the incentive for killing 

 them for food is great. In Senegal, according to Cligny (1900), 

 "they have become very rare, but one still finds them from 

 time to time, especially in the Faleme and the Casamance. " 

 They are rare now also in the French Cameroons, according to 

 recent advices. In the Gaboon, at the present time, they are 

 said to be strictly localized at the mouth of the Ogowe and in 

 the coastal lagoons of Fernan-Vaz. Here, however, they have 

 been protected since 1916, "but this protection appears to be 

 merely platonic, " for as lately as 1929 their meat was sold in 

 the market of Port-Gentil, and the fishers, in view of the 

 lucrative trade, eagerly pursued the animals; since 1930, how- 

 ever, the numbers brought in at Port-Gentil have much dimin- 

 ished (A. R. Maclatchy, in litt.}. A. J. Jobaert writes, in reply 

 to Dr. Harper's inquiry, that in the Belgian Congo the manatee 

 "occurs in more or less considerable numbers in all the creeks 

 of the Lower Congo from the river's mouth to Matade" but 

 in the lower Congo "is on the verge of total extermination. 

 The few remaining will not survive long under the merciless 

 hunting of the river natives on both sides (Congo and Angola). " 

 They are captured in special nets, kept alive in creeks or fish 

 ponds, and sold as butcher's meat in the markets. The pro- 

 tection accorded them by law will remain illusory and will not 

 prevent their disappearance as long as the use of these nets is 



