ABOUT THE MANATEE. 423 



Springing alone, 



With a shrill inner sound, 

 Over the throne 



In the midst of the hall ; 

 Till that great sea-snake under the sea 

 From his coiled sleeps in the central deeps 

 Would slowly trail himself sevenfold 

 Round the hall where I sate, and look in at the gate 

 With his large calm eyes for the love of me. 

 And all the mermen under the sea 

 Would feel their immortality 

 Die in their hearts for the love of me." 



It is difficult to believe, though such is asserted to be 

 the case, that poetical figures like these could have been 

 suggested by the somewhat ungraceful outline and inex- 

 pressive countenance of the Herbivorous Cetacea. To the 

 ordinary observer, at all events, the resemblance is not 

 apparent. And considering the fact that the Herbivorous 

 Cetacea frequent the mouths of the tropical rivers, while 

 the ancient navigators knew but little of the western and 

 southern waters, we may reasonably doubt whether they 

 had anything to do with the ancient fable of the sirens. 

 We do not see why the plastic and prolific imagination 

 which peopled the fountains with Naiads and the groves 

 with Oreads, should not, unassisted, have created the 

 singing-nymphs of ocean, whose music mingled artfully 

 with the murmur of the whispering waves. 



The Herbivorous Cetacea (order Sirenia) include the 

 Manatee, so named on account of the resemblance of its 

 fin to the human hand, and the Dugong ; often spoken 

 of collectively as " sea-cows," and forming the zoological 

 family of the Manatidce. Like the whales, they possess 

 a powerful caudal fin, which is placed horizontally. The 

 anterior limbs are modified into flippers or swimming- 

 paddles, and the posterior are wholly wanting. The snout 

 is fleshy and well developed ; the thick upper lip usually 



