ANtMAL3. 397 



pole. They were formerly more numerous than at present ; and 

 the savage natives of the coasts of Greenland destroyed them in 

 much greater quantities, before those seas were visited by Euro • 

 pean ships upon the whale-fishery, than now. Whether these 

 animals have been since actually thinned by the fishers, or have 

 removed to some more distant and unfrequented shores, is not 

 known ; but certain it is, that the Greenlanders, who once had 

 plenty, are now obliged to toil more assiduously for subsistence; 

 and as the quantity of their provisions decrease, for they live 

 mostly upon seals, the numbers of that poor people are everyday 

 diminishing. As to the teeth, they are generally from two to 

 three feet long ; and the ivory is much more esteemed than that 

 of the elephant, being whiter and harder. The fishers have been 

 known formerly to kill three or four hundred at once ; and 

 along those shores where they chiefly frequented, their bones 

 are still seen lying in prodigious quantities. In this manner a 

 supply of provisions, which would have supported the Greenland 

 nation for ages, has been, in a few years, sacrificed to those who 

 did not use them, but who sought them for the purposes o* 

 avarice and lujoiry ! 



THE MANATI. 



We come, in the last place, to an animal that terminates the 

 boundary between quadrupeds and fishes. Instead of a creature 

 preying among the deeps, and retiring upon land for repose or 

 refreshment, we have here an animal that never leaves the water, 

 and is enabled to live only there. It cannot be called a quadru- 

 ped, as it has but two legs only ; nor can it be called a fish, as it 

 is covered with hair. In short, it forms the link that unites those 

 two great tribes to each other ; and may be indiscriminately called 

 tne last of beasts, or the first of fishes. 



We have seen the seal approaching nearly to the aquatic 

 tribes, by having its hind legs thrown back on each side of the 

 tail, and forming something that resembled the tail of a fish ; but 

 upon examining the skeleton of that animal, its title to the rank 

 of a quadruped was observed plainly to appear, having all the 

 bones of the hinder legs and feet as complete as any other animal 

 whatsoever. 



But we are now come to a creature that not only wants the 



II. 2 L 



