130 



ANIMAL CARVINGS. 



mistakable otter, with the fish iu its mouth, to the more clumsily exe- 

 cuted aud less readily recognized carvings of the same animal. 



It was doubtless the general resemblance which the several specimens 

 of the otters and the so-called manatees bear to each other that led 

 Stevens astray. They are by no means facsimiles one of the other. 

 On the contrary, while no two are just alike, the differences are perhaps 



Fig. 8. — Lamantln or Bea-cow of Squier and Davis. 



not greater than is to be expected when it is considered that they 

 doubtless embody the conceptions of different artists, whose knowledge 

 of the animal, as well as whose skill in carving, would naturally differ 

 widely. Eecoguizing the general likeness, Stevens perhaps felt that 

 what one was all were. In this, at least, he is probably correct, and 



Fij;. 9. — Laniantin or sea-cow of .Squier. 



the following reasons are deemed sufficient to show that, whether the 

 several sculptures figured by one and another author are otters or not, 

 as here maintained, they most assuredly are not manatees. The most 

 important character jiossessed by the sculptures, which is not found in 

 the manatee, is an external ear. In this particular they all agree. 

 Now, the manatee has not the slightest trace of a pinna or external 

 ear, a small orifice, like a slit, representing that organ. To quote the 

 precise language of Murie iu the Proceedings of the London Zoological 

 Society, vol. 8, p. 188 : " In the absence of pinna, a small orifice, a line 

 in diameter, into which a probe could be passed, alone I'epresents the 



