A GREAT NOSE 137 



planted around other desert islands in the same 

 region is an idea too altruistic, too advanced and 

 too practical to occur to the men in Behring's time. 

 There is still another creature which is classed 

 by the scientist with the American manatee under 

 the family name of sirenia, and this is the dugong, 

 a name which the Malays have given it. The du- 

 gong is reported to be found in the Red Sea, East- 

 ern Africa, Mauritius, Malacca, the Indian Archi- 

 pelagos, and on the west coast of Australia. All 

 this and much more you can find in any up-to-date 

 natural history. Personally I have never seen a 

 dugong and I am too young to have ever met a 

 live rhytina, and while I have made illustrations 

 of these last two animals, they were made u out of 

 my head" and the pictures published unsigned, in 

 the good old box-w r ood days when nobody ques- 

 tioned any nature fakir's work, whether it was a 

 book or a picture. Ah ! those were great days for 

 the engravers if not for the illustrators. The lat- 

 ter made pictures as the engravers directed and the 

 engravers knew as much about natural history as a 

 cow does about Christian Science. 



