OCEANIC MAMMALS 551 



systems" (Hatt, 1934). It is apparently still to be found in 

 good numbers in the Amazon River and its larger affluents, 

 although specific information is scarce. As an animal constant- 

 ly in demand for its flesh, oil, and hide, however, it may be 

 given brief mention here. In the Amazon it is found as far up 

 at least as Iquitos on the eastern borders of Peru, and to the 

 south is said by Wied to be known as far as St. Matthews 

 River (lat. 19 S.), Brazil. True (1884b) quotes an account by 

 Smyth and Lowe of the capture of a manatee in the Ucayali 

 River at Sarayacu, in eastern Peru, in 1835. The basis for 

 including the Orinoco drainage in the range of this species is 

 not clear. Brandt mentions its occurrence in the lower reaches 

 as far up as the first rapids, but this probably refers to T. 

 manatus; and is quoted from old Oviedo. In general, the ani- 

 mal has become scarcer in inhabited regions, but in the upper 

 waters, where natives are few or "civilization" has not reached, 

 the numbers are probably little affected. An interesting ac- 

 count of French Guinea, by Barbot, published in 1732, tells us 

 that at that time manatee meat was in much demand at 

 Cayenne and was brought "ready salted from the river of the 

 Amazons; several of the principal inhabitants sending the barks 

 and brigantines thither with men and salt to buy it of the 

 Indians for beads, knives, white hats of a low price, some linen, 

 toys, and iron tools. When those vessels are enter 'd the river 

 of the Amazons, the Indians, who always follow the Manati 

 fishery, go aboard, take the salt, and with it run up the river 

 in canoes or Piraguas to catch the Manati' s; which they cut in 

 pieces, and salt as taken, returning with that salt fish to the 

 brigantines; which go not up, because the Portuguese who 

 dwell to the eastward, at Para, and other places of Brazil, 

 claim the sovreignty of the north side of that river . 

 The brigantines having got their lading of salted Manati', 

 return to Cayenne, and sell it there, commonly at three pence 

 a pound" (quoted from True, 1884b). Here it was "preferred 

 to beef. Its fat, also, is as sweet as butter, and can be used to 

 advantage in all kinds of pastry, fricasees, and soups." In 

 more recent times it must have been largely reduced in the 

 lower Amazon, for Goeldi (1904), in mentioning it from the 

 Rio Arary, says that at the mouth of the Amazon and the Isle 

 of Marajo it was then altogether a rarity. Those, he adds, 

 that from time to time come in to the markets at Belem gener- 



