THE DUGONG. 



381 



also a complete skeleton of Rhjtina, from the peat of Beh- 

 ring's Island, is exhibited. The skeleton^ of all the varieties is 

 remarkable for the massiveness of the bones, especially of the 

 ribs, which are intensely hard, and it is doubtless owing to the 

 specific gravity of these that the animals are enabled to keep 

 their bodies much below the surface in shallow waters whilst 

 feeding on the marine vegetation. 



Turning now to the literature of the subject, we find a curious 

 figure of the killing of the Manatee by the natives in America in 

 De Bry.^ , One is represented astride' of the animal, driving- 

 wooden plugs into its nostrils, while another is towing it behind 

 his canoe. Another curious illustration may be seen in a Spanish 



Rhytina. 



work on the Orinoco by Father Joseph Gumilla.^ In it the 

 Manatee is represented on its back suckling two young, one under 

 each flipper. 



But our first real knowledge of this group of animals dates from 

 the time of the German naturalist Steller, who, with the Russian 

 captain and celebrated navigator Yitus Behring, were cast on an 



1 H. Woodward, Geol Mag., 1885, p. 422. 



2 Frankfort, 1602. America., part 9. 



3 El Orinoco iUuxtrado y defendido, Historia natural^ Civil y geo- 

 graphica de este gran Rio ; Madrid, 17-45, vol. ii, p. 112. 



