270 NATURAL HISTORY. 



slaty-brown or bluish-black above, and whitish below. The early traveller, Legtiat, speaks of droves 

 of several hundreds grazing like Sheep on the seaweeds a few fathoms deep in the clear waters of the 

 Mascarene Islands. Usually this tropical animal frequents the shallow smooth waters of the bays, 

 inlets, and river estuaries where marine vegetation (fucus and seaweeds) is in abundance, and there 

 it leisurely feeds, being lethargic in disposition, but an immense eater. When they have not been 

 much chased they are not shy or timid, and even allow the natives to handle them ; on which occasions 

 the admiring spectators generally manage to abstract the smaller and fatter cubs as dainties, for they 

 are considered uncommon good food. So highly prized are they, that the Malay king considers it a 

 royal " fish," and he claims all taken in his dominions. The flesh of the young, when cooked in a 

 variety of ways, is certainly wholesome by some compared to veal, and by others to beef or pork 

 but the older animals are tougher. The Moreton Bay colonists call them " Sea Pig." They yield a 

 clear oil of the best quality, which is free from all objectionable smell, and it is strongly recommended 

 as a remedial agent in lieu of cod-liver oil. Hence an Australian Dugong fishery has been established ; 

 but its equipped boats' crews are fast sweeping off the once plentiful numbers. The stories of their 

 being found ashore, browsing on land herbage, are not supported by fact ; indeed, the inadequate 

 strength of their fore-limbs, the absence of hind extremities, and their unwieldy bodies, prevent them 

 from travelling on land. This is borne out by the statements of the natives of Sumatra to Sir Stam- 

 ford Raffles, as well as other travellers. The Red Sea Arabs told Dr. Riippell that they had feeble 

 voices, a fact that other Australian observers have corroborated, although the roaring of Seals has 

 been mistaken for them. In the spring months the males do battle for partners, and the yoiing are 

 born towards the end of the year. Like the Rhytina, the Dugong shows intense maternal affection, 

 for if the young be taken, the mother suffers herself to be speared in following her offspring. In its 

 strange bristly-clad muzzle the Dugoug resembles its congeners, but its skull and dentition are 

 singular. Thus, the fore or premaxillary region of the upper jaw is elongated, sharply crooked 

 downwards, and overlaps the very deep lower jaw, which is similarly down-bent. The two opposed 

 surfaces bear the horny tuberculated plates which rub and grind the vegetable food. The dental 

 formula ordinaiily is Incisors, 5^ ; canines, <^ ; molars, lEr s = 14. The pair of incisor tusks are 

 lodged in the down-bent upper jaw, and protrude in the male, but in the female they are diminutive, 

 and retained within the bone. Behind them there is a considerable space devoid of canine, and then 

 come three slightly laterally compressed ovoid molars without enamel. The molars, however, may 

 occasionally be five in number, the fore ones dropping out, and others behind taking their places, 

 but not succeeding vertically. In some instances the males have an additional lateral small incisor. 

 Thus as many as twenty-four teeth may be developed, but these are never in use at one and the 

 same time. This peculiar dentition, and the successive displacement of the anterior molars, fore- 

 shadows what is regularly found in the Elephants and Mastodons. 



The MANATEE, or Lamantin of the French, inhabits the African and American Continents. 

 In Africa it ranges along the west coast, and ascends the Senegal, Niger, Congo, and other rivers, 

 where it not only frequents the lagoons, but even has been captured in Lake Tchad. This animal is 

 known as M. senegalensis. In America two forms are supposed to exist one, the M. latirostris, of 

 Florida, is said to have closer resemblance to the African form than to its fellow-countryman ; the 

 other, M. americamts, is found in Surinam, Guiana, Jamaica, the Amazon and its tributaries, 

 and, indeed, in the various rivers, bays, and inlets of the tropical American coast. These creatures, 

 like the foregoing, browse upon the aquatic vegetation of the shallow lagoons and river banks, 

 apparently, however, having a preference for fresh-water plants. Their habits and mode of feeding 

 are, in a measure, similar to those of the Dugong and the Rhytina. The full-grown Manatee is 

 from ten to twelve feet in length. Its long body terminates in a thin, wide, shovel-shaped, fibrous, 

 horizontal tail, proportionally broader, but resembling somewhat that of the Beaver. The fore- 

 limbs, or flippers, have diminutive flat nails. The skin of the body can be compared only to that 

 of the Elephant, not in colour alone, but also in its coarse, wrinkly texture, and widely-scattered, 

 delicate, but long hairs. Its deep-set, minute eye is surrounded by skin wrinkles. As in the preceding 

 genera, the imizzle is peculiar a kind of half-moon-shaped swelling above, with deep crossing wrinkles 

 set with short stiff" bristles. Beneath this there projects a mass of hard gum, covered with a roughened 

 horny plate. The lower jaw also has a gum plate, underhung by a bristle-clad lower lip. The 



