218 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



of which are molars. Sometimes they descend to the mouths of 

 the rivers, but never go out into the salt water. They are fresh- 

 water seals, fat and gentle, slow in their motions, perpetually 

 gathering grasses with their flippers, and drawing their food into 

 their mouth with an in-and-out motion of the three lips. They 

 seem to sleep on the muddy banks in the lake and are quick to 

 hear or see danger, and their only refuge is in diving through the 

 dark waters to a distance where they come to the surface among 

 the weeds and grass to take breath and watch their pursuer. 



Their flesh is eatable, and the tail soaked in brine is like the 

 beaver's tail, considered an article of great luxury in the West Indian 

 Islands. They are mammals, the female having two breasts just 

 under the flippers. The fishermen harpoon them for their flesh 

 and oil, and occasionally one is taken with nets of rope to sell to 

 museums. But they pine in captivity for their accustomed food, 

 and rarely live long. They are one of those conspicuous and help- 

 less races, which, like the moa, the dodo, the great auk, the 

 mammoth, the Irish elk, the rhytina, and the bison, are destined to 

 extermination, and presently will only be known by their skeletons. 

 In the great pools of the everglades, these simple-minded beasts 

 have found for ages a suitable home, but as population increases, 

 and the devices of man for destruction are multiplied, they become 

 extinguished. 



Presently the male manatee came to the surface, and, exhaling 

 its long-contained breath, paused to look around. It did not see 

 us, or if it did, paid no heed, but munched the grasses that still 

 hung to its mouth and used its flipper to aid it with a ludicrous 

 resemblance to a negro finishing dinner, and wiping his mouth 

 with the back of his hand. 



As our canoe moved ahead they both disappeared making little 

 disturbance in the water, and slipping away like a seal. 



Continuing up the river we saw another lying with its head 

 supported on the oozy bank of the river apparently asleep. The 

 motion of the oars disturbed it, and drawing off a young one, that 

 was lying near on the bank, with a sweeping motion of its flipper, 

 the young one disappeared and the mother followed it. 



The skin of these animals was of an olive colour getting greyish 



