steller's account op the sea cow. 197 



same with the sea lion, the sea bear and the sea otter, bat I was reckoning without 

 my host, for in Kamchatka there is no hope of getting everything. 



But let me cease from narrating my complaints and my hindrances. 



The manatee is not the sea cow of Aristotle, for it never comes upon dry land to 

 feed. And it is of little consequence whether it is the same or not, for it is not this 

 animal that he described; indeed, he never saw it and never heard anything about it 

 to tell. In the second place, I remark that Lopez Francisco Hernandes themselves 

 saw the animals, and that Clarissimus Glusiu* and Kay, misinformed by them, have 

 affirmed many things of the animal that are inconsistent with truth and autopsy. 



1. The animal has no hair at all that can properly be called hair. It has bristles 

 rather, or hollow quills, and these are found only around the mouth and under the feet. 



2. The head of this animal is not that of a calf, as Cl.Clusius says; not that of 

 an ox, as Hernandes was pleased to describe it; but in the character of its covering it 

 is like no other animal, but has its own peculiar appearance. 



3. The feet are entirely without claws, but skin covers them as it does the bone 

 of an amputated limb, so that the animal moves upon a skin that is rough with 

 bristles. 



4. As to the fact that Hernandes attributes to this animal nails like those which 

 men have, in order to make it more like the Platonic man, that is equally false, for 

 the animal has no fingers at all any more than nails, unless perchance the hoof of a 

 horse, to which it bears a certain resemblance, impresses anyone as being like a 

 human nail. 



5. And so, by the way, it is evident even from this how much obscurity envelops 

 this subject if we start with false premises and arrive at worse conclusions. For 

 instance, all authors with one consent agree that this animal ascends rivers and feeds 

 upon the grass that it may manage to get along the banks, ior they may perhaps have 

 heard from the people that it feeds on herbs; but those are not land herbs, but sea- 

 weeds. 



Nor does the statement have the appearance of truth, that they are in the habit 

 of lying upon the rocks and of coming up on the land, even if I say nothing of the 

 fact that the structure of the animal is totally unfitted for moving on dry land. 

 Indeed, it happened that as the tide went out the waves receded from under one of 

 the animals sound asleep and left him high and dry upon the shore; but he was help- 

 less and unable to get away, a pitiable object, at the mercy of our cudgels and axes. 



That this animal should be tamed seems more likely than do the anecdotes that 

 are given of its remarkable sagacity, since even the untamable can be tamed through 

 its stupidity and greediness. It happened to me on one unlucky occasion that I could 

 watch the habits and ways of these beasts daily for ten months from the door of my 

 hut, and I will briefly note down the observations that I made with great care. 



These animals are fond of shallow sandy places along the seashore, but they like 

 especially to live around the mouths of rivers and creeks, for they love fresh running 

 water, and they always live in herds. They keep the young and the half-grown 

 before them while they feecl, but they are careful to surround them on the flank and 

 rear and always to keep them in the middle of the herd. When the tide came in they 

 came up so close to the shore that I often hunted them with jmy stick or lance, and 

 sometimes even stroked their backs with my hand. If they were badly hurt, they did 

 nothing but withdraw to a distance from the shore, and after a short time they would 



