Manate. 657 



down the rope to break it, and others strike at the harpoon with 

 their tails, and often succeed in forcing it out. 



They are of an enormous size ; some are twenty three feet long, 

 and weigh S,000 pounds. The head is small, oblong, and almost 

 square ; the nostrils are filled with short bristles ; the gape is 

 small ; the lips double ; near the junction of the two jaws the mouth 

 is full of white tubular bristles j the lips are also full of bristles, 

 which serve instead of teeth. In the mouth there are no teeth ; 

 only two white flat bones, one in each jaw, with undulated surfaces, 

 which serve in place of grinders. The eyes are extremely small, not 

 larger than those of a sheep; the iris is black : it has no ears, only 

 two very small orifices : the tongue is pointed and small j neck very 

 thick; the head hangs down. The circumference of the body near 

 the shoulders is twelve feet ; about the belly twenty ; near the tail 

 only four feet eight : the head thirty- one inches; the neck seven 

 feet. Near the shoulders are two feet, or rather fins, which are 

 only two feet two inches long, and have neither fingers nor nails ; 

 concave beneath, and covered with hard bristles. The tail is thick, 

 strong, and horizontal, ending in a stiff black fin, like the substance 

 of a whalebone. 



The skin is very thick, black, and full of inequalities, like the bark 

 of oak. It has no hair on it; but is so hard as scarcely to be cut 

 with an axe. Beneath the skin there is a thick blubber which tastes 

 like oil of almonds. The flesh is coarser than beef, and will not 

 soon putrify. The young ones taste like veal. The skin is used for 

 shoes, and for covering the sides of boats. 



The round-tailed manate has thick lips ; eyes as minute as a pea ; 

 and two very small orifices for ears. Its neck is short, and thicker 

 than its head : it is thickest at the shoulders, and tapers gradually 

 to the tail, which is quite round, lies horizontally, is thickest in the 

 middle, growing thinner to the edges. The feet are placed at the 

 shoulders ; beneath the skin there are bones for five complete toes ; 

 near the base of each foot, in the female, is a small teat. The skin 

 is very thick and hard, having some few hairs scattered over it. 

 Dampier measured some of these animals in the West Indies ten or 

 twelve feet long; their tails twenty inches long, and fourteen broad. 

 Some of the largest weighed twelve hundred pounds. Clusius ex- 

 amined one sixteen feet and a half long, and Gomora speaks of them 

 of the length of tw enty feet. 



The manates which entirely inhabit fresh waters, according to 



VOL. V. 2 U 



