THE MANATEES. 



557 



ica and its rivers as far south as Cape North, occur- 

 ring principally in Surinapi. Probably it' is the 

 only member of the order to be found in the Gulf 

 of Mexico. A. von Humboldt observed that the 

 Lamantins prefer those places in the sea in which 

 there are fresh water inlets or springs; in rivers 

 they penetrate far inland and in times of inundation 

 they also wander into lakes and swamps. "In the 

 evening," says A. von Humboldt, "we passed the 

 •estuary of the Cano del Manati, which derives its 

 name from the enormous number of Lamantins or 

 Manatis which are annually caught there. They are 

 plentiful on the Orinoco below the waterfalls, in the 

 Meta and the Apure." 



The habits of the Lamantin are much like those 

 of other Sirenia. Several travelers have affirmed 

 that it sometimes leaves the water to graze on land; 

 but as early as the last century others most decid- 

 edly refuted this. It browses only on the grass 



arrows, which have ropes and light wooden floats 

 fastened to them to indicate the direction the ani- 

 mal takes, or he harpoons and kills and then flays 

 and dresses it in one of those light, raft-like boats, 

 which are used for travel on South American rivers. 

 This latter operation is sometimes done in the mid- 

 dle of the stream, the hunters first filling the boat 

 two-thirds full of water, pushing it under the Laman- 

 tin and then causing it to float by baling the water 

 out with a gourd. The thick hide of the beast is 

 cut into strips and used for whips and cords, the 

 latter are of no service in the water as they soon rot. 



THE DUGONG. 



The Chinese and Arabs have for centuries known 

 one of the most important representatives of the 

 family of which we received but scant, occasional in- 

 formation up to the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury; we mean the Dugong {Halicore dujong). 



THE SUGOITG. In the Red Sea and on the eastern coast of Africa and all coasts of southern Asia, the Indo-Malayan ."irchipelago and 



Australia, the Dugong is numerously found, living on seaweed in shallow harbors, bays and mouths of rivers. The tail is fish-like, but the head 

 is of oblong shape, and the only limbs are two nailless flippers. (Halicore dugong.) 



which grows in the water. As all southern rivers in 

 quiet places abound in aquatic plants of all kinds it 

 does not suffer from want, nor is it obliged to swim 

 far to procure its food. It eats enough to completely 

 fill the stomach up to the oesophagus, but when 

 its appetite is satisfied it often lies down in shallow 

 places, in such a way that the snout projects above 

 the water, so that it does not need to be constantly 

 rising to the surface to breathe and thus it sleeps 

 through several hours of the day. When it is awake 

 it can be seen above the water only when it comes 

 up to breathe; this, however, happens very often, 

 notwithstanding the capacious lungs, and it is prob- 

 ably for this reason that it prefers the shallower 



spots in rivers. 



Hunting and 

 Taming the La- 

 mantin, 



Lamantins in 

 comes up to 



The method of hunting this animal 

 is rather simple. The hunter ap- 

 proaches the grazing -place of the 

 a boat and waits until one of them 

 breathe. He either shoots it with 



Description of The Dugong attains a length of from 

 the Du- ten feet to sixteen feet eight inches. 

 gong. jhe short, thick neck, which exhibits 



distinct demarcation from the head, merges almost 

 imperceptibly into the body, which is uniformly 

 rounded, gradually becoming thicker from the head 

 to the middle and then tapering towards the tail. 

 The pectoral fins are placed at a short distance be- 

 hind the apertures of the ears, in the lower third of 

 the perpendicular thickness of the body; they are 

 not particularly long; but broad, rounded at the 

 anterior margin, sharper at the posterior; the toes 

 may be recognized only by touch, for no trace of 

 claws exists. The tail is formed by a flattened, 

 crescent-shaped fin. The most striking feature in 

 the short, thick snout is the flat upper lip, sloping 

 from above backwards and downward, and beneath 

 which projects a thick piece of flesh, truncated be- 

 low. This projection communicates behind with a 

 peculiar plate in the mouth, which covers the inter- 



