7130 Cetacea, 



ihey tore from it seven teeth, which they offered me. It was easy for 

 me to discover that these teeth belonged to a herbivorous animal. 

 They proved, in fact, to be the teeth of a dugon, a mammiferous sea- 

 animal but little known, and which appears to be confined to the 

 Indian Ocean." He then cites Leguat's account; but this worthy 

 writer observed them at the Mascarine Islands (Mauritius, Rodriguez, 

 &c.), where they are now, so far as I can learn, quite extinct, and the 

 species may have been different, perhaps that from the Red Sea, styled 

 H. Tabernaculi by Dr. Riippell ; it may, however, still be found off 

 Madagascar and the neighbouring coast of Africa. 



Leguat, with his party of French Protestant refugees, settled on the 

 then uninhabited island of Rodriguez in 1691, and remained there for 

 two years. His account is celebrated for the description of the now 

 extinct solitaire, and his accuracy in other matters has been established. 

 He mentions duyongs as inhabiting the shores of the Mascarine 

 Islands "in great numbers. They attained to 20 feet in length, and 

 fed in flocks like sheep in three or four fathoms water, making no 

 attempt at escape when approached. Sometimes they were shot at 

 the end of the musket, sometimes laid hold of and forced on shore. 

 Three or four hundred were met with together, and they were so far 

 from shy that they suffered themselves to be handled, and the fattest 

 were thus selected. The larger ones were avoided, not only on account 

 of the trouble they gave in the capture, but because their flesh was 

 not so good as that of the smaller and younger ones." * 



The H. Tabernaculi of the Red Sea Dr. Riippell " saw swimming 

 among the coral banks on the Abyssinian coast near the Dalac Islands. 

 The fishermen harpooned a female, which he dissected, 10 feet long. 

 The Arabs stated that they live in pairs or small families, that they 

 have feeble voices, feed on Algae, and that in February and March 

 bloody battles take place between the males, which attain to 18 feet," 

 &c.t 



Sir Stamford Raffles remarks that " the duyongs are seldom caught 

 at Singapore above 8 or 9 feet in length ; but how much larger they 

 grow is not ascertained, as, when they exceed that size, their superior 

 strength enables them to make their escape." 



Barchemitz remarks of those of Australia that " Each of these enor- 

 mous fish is more than 21 feet long; the male is a little larger than 

 the female. Their heads resemble that of an ox. They live upon a 

 green grass which grows upon the banks." 



Some of the sailors of the expedition that Peron accompanied were 



* Penny Cyclopaedia,' article " Whales." f I<1- 



