stellee's account of the sea cow. 189 



I have seen in one animal these claws divided into two parts, like an ox's hoof. 

 The division, however, was no more than marked, and that only in the cuticle; this 

 happened more by mere chance than by the will of nature, and was the more easy 

 and the more possible as the cuticle that covered the claws was disposed on account 

 of its dryness to crack. 



Now, this Platonic man, as the eminent John Eay was pleased in jest to call him, 

 performs with these arms various offices: with these he swims, as with branchial fins; 

 with these he walks on the shallows of the shore, as with feet; with these he braces 

 and supports himself on the slippery rocks; with these he digs out and tears off the 

 algae and seagrasses from the rocks, as a horse would do with its front feet; with these 

 he fights, and when taken with a hook and dragged from the water upon dry land 

 he resists so vehemently that the cuticle surrounding these arms is often torn and 

 pulled off in pieces; and finally with these the female when smitten with the sting of 

 passion, swimming prone upon her back, embraces her covering lover and holds him 

 and permits herself in turn to be embraced. 



The two breasts are different from those of most other animals, but in place and 

 form are exactly as in man; they are situated one under each arm; and one breast is a 

 foot and a half in diameter, convex, rough with many spiral wrinkles, full of glands, 

 very hard — harder than a cow's — and without any intermingling fat. But the adipose 

 tissue that surrounds t]xe whole body rests upon them only with the same thickness 

 as everywhere else, but the cuticle is thinner there and softer, and more wrinkled, 

 and the papillae are likewise surrounded with a black cuticle with circular wrinkles, 

 but soft. Under the arm itself, or axilla, the breast hangs, and when the animal is 

 in milk the nipple is 4 inches long and IJ inches in diameter; in those, however, 

 which have gone dry, or have not yet given birth, it is so short and contracted that 

 it seems nothing more than a chance wart, for the breast is not swollen. 



The milk is very rich and sweet, and in consistency is very much like sheep's 

 milk, and very often it was my wont to get the milk in large quantities from dead 

 ones in the same way as from cows. The nipple is very much wrinkled and a little 

 higher than the rest of the breast. When tlie glands are cut they give out milk 

 which is like that which I collected by squeezing the papillae. Ten or twelve lacteal 

 ducts open into each papilla. The breasts when boiled are a little harder than beef, 

 and give out the odor of game, but mild. 



They come together after the human fashion, the male above and the female below. 

 The penis of the male is 32 inches long, and with its sheath is bound firmly in front 

 to the abdomen, and reaches clear to the navel — in a word, it is very coarse and 

 obscene to look upon, very much like that of a horse, and ends with the same sort of 

 a gland, only larger. 



The female pudenda lie 8 inches above the anus. The opening of the vulva is 

 almost a triangle, and wider above, where the clitoris lies, and narrower toward the 

 anus. The opening itself would without difficulty admit five fingers together. The 

 clitoris is about 1^ inches long. It is cartilaginous and surrounded with a very strong, 

 smooth skin, and is uneven, with many short wrinkles that fold together. The skin is 

 variegated with yellow and white, and so is the vulva. The labia vulvae are very 

 rigid and hard. The urethra empties into the vulva about 5 inches from the opening 

 of the vulva. Below this is stretched a strong, crescent-shaped membrane, partly 

 muscular and partly tendinous, which separates the vulva from the vagina uteri, 



