THE MANATT. 555 



Description, &c. 



Although it is pretended that these animals 

 cannot live if removed from their native coun- 

 try, it is certain that after the conquest of Peru, 

 some of them were transported into Europe. 

 The animal spoken of by Gessner, under the 

 name of allo camel us, and of which he has given 

 a delineation, is evidently a lama, which was 

 brought alive to Holland, in the year 1558; and 

 is the same with that Matthioius calls an elapho- 

 camelus, which he has described with the utmost 

 care and accurac}'. " We ought therefore," says 

 M. de Buffon, " to be better informed of the 

 nature of' these animals, which might prove very 

 useful to us; for they would probably thrive as 

 well upon the Alpine and Pyreneau mountains, 

 as on the Cordeliers. 



THE M4NATL 



" THIS animal," says the Conite de Buffon, 

 .may be indiscriminately called the last of beasts, 

 or the first of fishes; for it cannot positively be 

 pronounced either the one or the other. It par- 

 takes of the nature of the former, by its two fore- 

 feet, or hands ; but the hind-legs, which are 

 almost concealed in the bodies of the seal and 

 walrus, are entirely wanting in the manati; which 

 has only a large tail, spreading out like a fan. 

 This animal, therefore, partakes of the nature of 

 ft. fish, by the hinder parts of its body, and of a 



