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iron, suspended by a string connected with a peg 
slightly secured in the feeding- passage, which is imme- 
diately under the weapon, from the cross-piece of a 
supporting wooden framework composed of hard wood 
and tie-tie. 
This trap is generally placed amid rank grass through 
which a passage has been cleared. About the peg is 
deposited a small delicate grass known to the natives. 
During grazing, which is effected on its back, the animal 
displaces the catch, and meets his fate. The fall of the 
harpoon does not, although it secures, always kill the 
animal, which is despatched in such a case by gun-shot. 
In the Popo language the manatee is called “ Yingbin- 
yingbin,” and in Yoruba “Ese.” They are, I have been 
informed, caught in the dry season, and when the lagoon 
waters are not full—say, during the first half of the year. 
Although it is the rule that they reappear with young at 
the commencement of the rainy season, and retire to the 
sea on the subsidence of the waters. 
The flesh of the manatee is much appreciated by the 
natives, resembling a combination of veal and pork. 
During my stay at Lagos I asked specially that I should 
be informed when one was caught, and on one Sunday 
morning, the 4th March last, I was gratified. A manatee 
had been caught in a drift-seine near Ajedé, in Jebu 
country, about ten miles from the bar of the Lagos river 
and up the lagoon. The animal was drowned after en- 
tanglement in the meshes of the net. The length was 9g feet, 
breadth at shoulders 2 feet, girth at thickest part 5 feet 
6 inches. At a distance of 3 feet from the end of the tail 
the girth was 4 feet, breadth of tail 2 feet, length of 
fin, which was 7 inches wide, was 14 inches; mouth was 
8 inches wide, skin about 1} inches — no doubt the 
