196 THE FUlt SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



The sternum iu the upper portion where the ribs are fastened on is cartilaginous; 

 in the lower portion toward the notch of the heart [scrobiculum cordis) it is bony to a 

 distance of a foot and a half. 



In place of the innominate bone of the hip there are two bones, one on each side 

 in size and forni like the ulna of the human skeleton, and joined with very strong 

 ligaments to the thirty-tifth vertebra on one side and to the os pubis on the other. It 

 has no clavicles. 



The arms consist of two bones, tarsus and metatarsus. 



DESCRIPTION OF ITS IIAUlTS AND NATURE. 



I should have abstained from an extended description of this animal if I had not 

 observed that there are in existence some brief and imperfect histories of the 

 manatee, swarming with fables and false theories after the manner of the last 

 century and the century before, in which the writers of natural history saw only 

 through a lattice what they might have seen with their eyes; when investigating the 

 unknown habits of animals, their character, and a thousand other things that have 

 nothing to do with their subject, they only involved the best known facts in more 

 than Cimmerian darkness. 



Therefore I have endeavored to give a clear and succinct idea of its external form 

 and that of the structure of its internal parts by stating its agreement and disagree- 

 ment with others, next by explaining the mechanism and nature of the animal, and 

 after that the use of its parts for food, medicine, and other things, and finally to add 

 in perfect truth what I observed with my own eyes in regard to the movements, nature, 

 and habits of the living animal. 



Various things combined to cause me many disappointments. The weather at 

 the time when the animals were captured was almost constantly rainy and cold; my 

 observations had to be made in the daytime; then there were the tides of the sea; 

 and the droves of blue foxes (isatides) would spoil everything with their teeth and 

 steal from under my very hands; they carried away my maps, book, and ink when I 

 was studying the animal and worried me when I was writing; the great size of the 

 animal itself and the bulk of its parts were also a hindrance, as 1 had to be both 

 observer and workman, as all the rest were anxious about the construction of a ship 

 and our liberation from the island. At my own expense I could hire them for barely 

 an hour at evening time for some of the simpler assistance, and in their ignorance and 

 dislike for the work they would tear everything to pieces, and acted according to their 

 own inclinations; so the injury they wrought and the loss they caused ought to be 

 commended in that they did not desert me entirely. Not a single gut could I get out 

 entire, nor unfold if 1 had got it out, so as to do anything worth while; so that for all 

 the pleasure 1 got from certain observations I had twice as much trouble and annoy- 

 ance in conset[uence of those useful things Avhich I had to leave alone. So I beg of 

 my kind readers, when they have finished reading this feeble description, that they 

 will judge it by ray will and my zeal rather than by the circumstances. 



I had prepared a skeleton of a manatee calf, and I had taken the cutis with the 

 cuticle separated from it and stuffed it with grass to bring it home with me; but when I 

 saw that on account of the small size of our craft this was impossible I wanted to bring 

 with me at least the spoils (skin), but even this wish was vain. 1 intended to do the 



