398 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



So far as the breeding habits of the Manatee are concerned, but 

 little or nothing is known; the best authorities have it that the 

 period of gestation lasts eleven months, and the young follow 

 their mother about for six months or perhaps longer. It is a 

 well known fact, of course, that the dam suckles her young at 

 her breasts, there being two mammae, which are post-axillary in 

 position. 



In concluding, it gives me pleasure to state that in my account 

 of this animal, I have been much assisted through my perusal of 

 True's history of it in that admirable work, published by the 

 United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, entitled " The 

 Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States." Mr. 

 True in closing his article in that work, says, "In the Manatee, 

 then, we have an animal of great size, of gentle disposition and 

 apparently of rapid growth, which lives in places readily accessi- 

 ble to man, and is easily captured, and which furnishes meat 

 which is not inferior, oil which is remarkably fine, and leather 

 which possesses great toughness. From these considerations it 

 would seem evident that, with the proper protection, it would 

 furnish no small revenue to the people in those portions of our 

 country which it inhabits, for centuries to come " (p. 128). 



Finally, to those interested in the progress of science in Flor- 

 ida, I should say that we have not as yet by any means a com- 

 plete history of this animal, and accurate reports upon the fol- 

 lowing subjects are very much to be desired: (1) an accurate ob- 

 servation giving all the circumstances of a Manatee voluntarily 

 coming ashore to feed or for any other purpose; (2) the manner 

 of coition, the period of gestation, the mode of delivery, the num- 

 ber of calves at a birth, how the latter are suckled, their size and 

 appearance, and how long they remain with their dam, and (:!) a 

 great deal of their structure and anatomy, are all subjects almost 

 unknown to us. 



