28 VACHE MARINE. [169I. 



In the Night the Wind rose so high, that all oiir Hands 

 found business enough to employ them. The Waves flew 

 up to the top of our Masts, and there fell so much Water 

 upon Deck, that our young Lad had been drown'd if he had 

 not been very nimbly assisted. 



On Neiv-Years-Day, 1691, we were entertain'd with the 

 sight of a Sea-Cow, of a russet Colour ; sometimes her whole 

 Head, and sometimes above lialf her Body appear'd above 

 Water; she was thick and round, and seem'd to be more bulky 

 than the bigest of our Cows.^ Her Eye was large, her Teeth 

 or Tusks long, and her Muzzle swell'd out a little : One of 

 our Mariners assur'd us, this Animal had Feet the same as 

 you see in this Figure. 



The llth and 12th we saw abundance of Birds as big as 

 Partridges, and very near of the same Colour, which our 

 Ships Crew call'd by the Name of Grissards^ or grey Birds : 

 There were several other sorts, and all of them different from 

 those of our Continent. You may imagine these new Objects 

 were not disagreeable to us ; but what pleas'd us most was, 

 that they were a certain sign of our being near Land. 



1 The figure given by Leguat's publishers of the Vache Marine is all 

 but identical with that figured by Pere Tachard, who writes of it:—" On 

 voit dans les grandes Rivieres un Animal monstrueux, qu'on apelle 

 Vache-Marine, & qui egale le Rhinoceros en grandeur, sa chair ou pour 

 mieux dire son lard est bon a manger, & le gout en est fort agrcable. 

 J'en ay mis icy la figure." {Voyage de Slam, liv. ii, p. 89.) 



There is much confusion as to the synonyme of so-called sea- 

 elephants, sea-lions, sea-bears, sea-leopards, sea- wolves, etc., which 

 names have been more or less misapplied to all seals with ears, so that 

 it is impossible to form any conjecture as to what this '■'■Vache marine'''' 

 was. The figure given by Leguat is clearly meant to represent a 

 hippopotamus ; but he could not have met with a hippopotamus at 

 sea 1 All we can say is, that it was probably not one of the sea- wolves 

 he found at Tristan d'Acunha. 



2 " Des grisets ce sont oyseaux gros comme Pigeons qui vivent de 

 pesche, ils sentent trop le marescage" {de Flacourt). " Grissard'"' seems 

 to be any grey sea-bird. Leguat, doubtless, met with " Cape Pigeons", 

 but he would hardly call them " Grissards": more likely '^ Pintades" . 



