ORDEE OP CETACEA. 



95 



The young ones have no less 



but defends her till his death, 

 tenderness for their mother. 



The fishermen know how to profit by the ties which unite all 

 the members of the family. They try, above all, to capture first 

 the females, because the males and the young ones follow them, to 

 defend them or to share their fate. On the shallow weedy 

 shores, round islands, at the mouths of rivers, which these innocent 

 and mild animals frequent to feed on the sea-weed, are the places 

 to look for the Manatees. The hunter waits for the moment 

 when they come to the surfiice to breathe; or else he sur- 



Fig. 23. — Manalee {Manatuij. 



prises them in their sleej), floating with their muzzles above the 

 surface of the water, in the current. When close he throws his 

 harjjoon. The wounded animal loses its blood ; this blood brings 

 up the other Manatees to the assistance of the victim. At this 

 fatal moment, some of them try to wrench out the murderous 

 weapon, the others to bite through the cord which the wounded 

 one is dragging along with it, thus afibrding the fishermen an 

 opportunity to massacre the whole troop. The unselfish devotion 

 of these animals leads them on to their destruction. 



The Manatees often leave the sea to go up rivers. For this 



