CHAPTER VI 

 SIRENIA 



IT seems meet to close these observations on whales 

 generally by a few remarks upon what is really the 



connecting link between the whales and the seals, 

 between those mammals who spend all their time in the 

 water — cannot live out of it — and those who, while 

 living entirely on the produce of the sea and perfectly 

 at home there, can yet make shift to live ashore for a 

 while, settle their love affairs there, and produce their 

 families. Such a link is found in the strange creature 

 called trivially the Sea Cow, but scientifically the 

 Manatee and Halicore. They are both riverine and 

 coastal mammals, feeding upon algae at the bottom, 

 perfectly harmless and almost helpless creatures, almost 

 unable, in spite of their great size, to keep from be- 

 coming extinct. In fact, one species (Rhytina), once 

 plentiful on the shores of Behring Straits, has become 

 extinct — its enemies had little difficulty in removing it 

 from the list of extant animals. 



Most readers of Kipling's fascinating sea idyll. The 

 White Seal, wUl remember Kotick's meeting with Sea 

 Cow, and his following them to the wonderful beaches 

 where man never came. Like all the work of this great 

 writer, his description of the Dugong and Halicore is 

 marked by scientific accuracy, and points out clearly 

 the remarkable structure of this connecting hnk 



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