WHALES AND MERMAIDS 305 



We have met with, ia the otters, animals specially 

 organised for an aquatic life, and in the sea-bears and 

 especially in the seals, creatures yet more exclusively so 

 constructed, since the last-named animals can progress 

 on land only with awkwardness and difficulty. Still all 

 these beasts can so progress, either in quadrupedal fashion 

 ■ — as do otters and sea-bears — or by convulsive bodily 

 contortions, as do the seals. But in the dugong, for the 

 first time (in our survey of different forms of life) we 

 come upon a creature absolutely aquatic and quite unable 

 to live on land. Indeed, not only does it remain afloat, 

 but it even avoids very shallow water, partly on account 

 of its terrestrial helplessness, and partly on account of 

 its seaweed diet. 



It is found in the Red Sea, off the east coast of Africa, 

 near Ceylon, in the islands of the Bay of Bengal, and 

 the Indian Archipelago, including the Philippine Islands, 

 and on the north of Australia. Thus it may be said to 

 range the Indian Ocean and a portion of the Pacific. 



In Australia the dugong is now regularly " fished " on 

 account of its oil, which is peculiarly clear, limpid, and 

 free from any disagreeable odour, and is said to have 

 the same salutary qualities as cod-liver oil. It is a slow, 

 inactive, mild, and inoffensive animal, incapable of self- 

 defence, and apparently destined ere long to become 

 extinct and disappear, as we shall see shortly that one of 

 its near relations has already done. 



Before passing to the nearest surviving species, a word 

 or two must be said as to its teeth and the structure of 

 its palate. In the first place, the male dugong possesses 

 a -pair of large, nearly straight tusks, which project 

 downward to a short distance beyond the mouth. They 

 may remind the reader of the tusks of the walrus, but 

 they are shorter and of a different nature, for they are 



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