154 



OEDERS OF MAMMALS— SEA-COWS 



rounded disc, which in swimming forms a power- 

 ful propeller. When dry its skin is of a clean, 

 slaty-gray color, but in the water it seems almost 

 black. The bones are solid and heavy, and the 

 ribs are very thick. The largest specimen ever 

 taken and preserved in the United States was 13 

 feet in length, and must have weighed about 1,200 

 pounds. In the summer of 1903, a fine specimen 

 about eight feet long was captured under a state 

 permit in the Banana River, Florida, and placed 

 on exhibition in the New York Aquarium. From 

 time to time, others have been, exhibited at 

 various watering-places along the Atlantic coast. 



The Manatee never comes upon land. Usually 

 its home is chosen in the upper waters of some 

 deep, quiet tropical river, above the influence of 

 the tide, where there is an abundance of manatee 

 grass and other water plants acceptable to it for 

 food. It is herbivorous, and because its molar 

 teeth are weak, arid there are no front' teeth, it 

 is compelled to live upon aquatic plants which 

 are tender as well as nourishing. Its food is 

 always eaten under water, and when at home, 

 its presence is generally revealed by the bits of 

 plant stems and grass bladeS; which escape and 

 float to the surface. In captivity, the Manatee 

 feeds upon lettuce, cabbage, canna leaves, celery 

 tops, water-cress, spinach, eel-grass and ocean 

 sea-weed. 



Even to-day the Manatee is found in Florida, 

 in the Banana, Sebastian and St. Lucie Rivers, 

 and its wanton destruction is prohibited by state 

 laws, under penalty of $500 fine. Occasionally, 

 however, a specimen is netted alive, under a 

 state permit, for exhibition purposes. In the 

 Sebastian River two of the great cold waves of 

 the past ten years unfortunately killed several 

 individuals. Farther south it is found about 

 the Isle of Pines, Cuba, and along the east coast 

 of Mexico,, and Central America, while another 

 species occurs in South America as far down 

 as southern Brazil. The flesh of this animal is 

 light-colored, and both looks and tastes like lean 

 fresh pork. 



As the result of several years of inquiry, I am 

 convinced that, strange as it may appear, in 

 Florida the Manatee really is being perpetuated. 

 The sentiment in favor of its preservation is 

 almost universal, and there is ground for the 

 behef that this is largely due to the wise liber- 



ality of the state authorities in granting a rea- 

 sonable number of permits to capture specimens 

 alive Tvhen the animals are ordered at high prices 

 for public exhibition. I believe that there are 

 more Manatee alive in Florida to-day than there 

 were twenty years ago, even though at one time 

 the species seemed doomed to speedy extinction 

 in the state. 



The Dugong is the only living Old-World rep- 

 resentative of the Order Sirenia, and between it 

 and the manatee the chief difference is found 

 in the whale-hke tail of the former. The Austra- 

 han Dugong, which attains a length of 14 feet, 

 once was so abundant along the coast of Queens- 

 land, between Moreton Bay and Cape York, that 

 a regular fishery was established at Moreton Bay. 



The Rhytina, or Arctic Sea-Cow, is of 

 special interest to Americans because of the 

 important part it played about the middle of 

 the eighteenth century in the discovery of Alaska. 

 In 1741, the Russian navigator, Captain Vitus 

 Bering, was shipwrecked on Bering Island, and 

 compelled to winter there. The majority of 

 the crew of the St. Peter died of hardship', and 

 the remainder also would have perished but for 

 the presence of the great Arctic Sea-Cow, then 

 seen for the first time. To George William 

 Steller, the official naturalist of the ill-fated ex- 

 pedition, the world owes all it ever will know of 

 the life history of this animal. Despite the suf- 

 ferings he endured, he faithfully and laboriously 

 reduced to writing everything that he observed 

 of the ponderous animal whose flesh sustained 

 the lives of the castaways. 



The Rhytina was an animal closely resembling 

 the dugong and manatee, but greatly exceeding 

 the maximum size of either. Steller declared 

 that " the full-grown animal weighs about 8,000 

 pounds," and from the skeletons that were col- 

 lected on Bering Island in 1883 by Dr. Leon- 

 hard Stejneger, and now on exhibition in the 

 United States National Museum, we know that 

 full-grown animals attained a length of between 

 20 and 30 feet. 



This species was exterminated by whalers who 

 sought it for food, aided by the natives who used 

 both its flesh and skin. It was practically ex- 

 terminated about 1780, but the last animal was 

 not killed until 1854. (Nordenskiold's " Voyage 

 of the Vega.") 



