Page 140. 
306 ON THE MANATEE. 
bending a little in that direction, the base of the tail doing so freely 
at a clearly marked transverse fold-line in that region. 
An opportunity occurred to me for seeing it out of water, when its 
pond was drained dry for a short time. From my observation on this 
occasion it is perfectly evident to me that the Manatee is purely aquatic 
in habits, and that it never willingly quits the water. When on land 
it seemed perfectly unable to advance or recede, the only movements it 
performed being that from its belly to its back, and wice versd. In 
these it made use of its limbs, flexing the body and the tail at the 
same time. When resting on its belly it seemed extremely uncom- 
fortable, apparently on account of difficulty in breathing, which it is 
easy to account for on the assumption that the weight of the body 
being supported on the almost ribless anterior walls of the thorax and 
abdomen, compressed the abdominal viscera against the lungs, and so 
greatly diminished the respiratory movements. It would not remain 
in this position for any length of time, but seemed comparatively 
comfortable whilst lying quietly on its back, as it did until the inflow- 
ing water had refilled the pond sufficiently to allow of its again 
supporting itself in the water. 
I may mention that the power of moving the slightly exserted 
elbow was considerable, whilst that of the wrist was small but appa- 
rent. It used its limbs much more freely than do the Seals, some- 
times employing the extreme margins of the paddles to assist in 
introducing food into the mouth, at others employing them in pro- 
gression along the bottom of the pond, during which time the 
swimming-tail could not be brought into play to any extent. 
The Manatee came into my hands within an hour or so of its death, 
and one of the earliest things that seemed desirable to do was to obtain 
some of its blood for examination. The first cut through the skin was 
sufficient to prove how different an animal it is from any of the 
Pinniped Carnivora; for instead of the muscles being of a deep almost 
black-red hue, as they are in the Seals, they were of a pale pink, 
more like veal or pork than any other flesh known to me, much lighter 
than beef. 
The blood-disks are circular and non-nucleated, as it was certainly 
known they would be. Their size, however, is their peculiarity. 
From the valuable investigations of Mr. Gulliver, which are incor- 
porated in their entirety in the Society’s ‘‘ Proceedings” for 1875 
(p. 474 et seq.), it is known that the largest mammalian blood-disks 
are found in the Elephants (;,;; of an inch in diameter), Great 
Anteater (g747), Sloths (4/55), Aard-vark (5,4,,;), and Walrus (375). 
In the Manatee the diameter of the largest reaches 3755 of an inch, 
others being considerably smaller. 
If there is any stress to be laid on the size of the blood-disks in 
