274 AltfPHIBIOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



at intervals, above the surface, as if for air, and 

 again plunging under it, with a horrid bellowing. 

 The female, in particular, whose young one had 

 been killed, and taken into the boat, became so 

 furious, that she even struck her tusks through 

 the bottom of the cutter."] 



THE MANATI. 



WE come, in the last place, to an animal that 

 terminates the boundary between quadrupeds and 

 fishes. Instead of a creature preying among the 

 deeps, and retiring upon land for repose or re- 

 freshment, we have here an animal that never 

 leaves the ..water, and is enabled to live only 

 there. It cannot be called a quadruped, as it has 

 but two legs only ; nor can it be called a fish, as 

 it is covered with hair. In short, it forms the 

 link that unites those two great tribes to each 

 other ; and may be indiscriminately called the 

 last of beasts, or the first of fishes. 



We have seen the seal approaching nearly to 

 the aquatic tribes, by having its hind-legs thrown 

 back on each side of the tail, and forming some- 

 thing that resembled the tail of a fish ; but upon 

 examining the skeleton of that animal, its title to 

 the rank of a quadruped was observed plainly to 

 appear, having all the bones of the hinder legs 

 and feet as complete as any other animal whatso- 

 ever. 



