24 



THE SEA-COWS. 



about them, and he that is in the head of the canoe 

 lays down his paddle, and stands up with his 

 striking staff in his hand. This staff is about 

 8 feet long, almost as big as a man's arm at the 

 great end, in which there is a hole to place his 

 harpoon in. At the other end of his staff there is 

 a piece of light wood called lobwood, with a hole 

 in it, through which the small end of the staff 

 comes, and in this piece of lobwood there is a line 

 of 10 or 12 fathoms wound neatly about, and the 

 end of the line made fast to it. The other end 

 of the line is made fast to the harpoon, which is at 

 the great end of the staff, and the Mosquito-man 

 keeps about a fathom of it loose in his hand. 

 When he strikes, the harpoon presently comes out 

 of the staff, and as the manatee swims away the 

 line runs off from the bob ; and although at first 

 both staff and bob may be carried under water, yet 

 as the line runs off it will rise again. Then the 

 Mosquito-men paddle with all their might to get 

 hold of the bob again, and spend usually a quarter 

 of an hour before they get it. When the manatee 

 begins to be tired it lies still, and then the Mos- 

 quito-men paddle to the bob and take it up, and 

 begin to haul in the line. When the manatee feels 

 them he swims away again with the canoe after 

 him; then he that steers must be nimble to turn 

 the head of the canoe that way that his consort 

 points, who, being in the head of the canoe and 

 holding the line, both sees and feels which way the 

 manatee is swimming. Thus the canoe is towed 

 with a violent motion till the manatee's strength 

 decays. Then they gather in the line, which they 

 are often forced to let all go to the very end. At 

 length, when the creature's strength is spent, they 

 haul it up to the canoe's side, and knock it on the 

 head and tow it to the nearest shore, where they 

 make it fast and seek for another; which having 

 taken, they go on shore with it to put it into their 

 canoe, for it is so heavy that they cannot lift it in, 

 but they haul it up in shoal water as near the shore 

 as they can, and then overset the canoe, lying on 

 one side close to the manatee, and roll it in, which 

 brings the canoe upright again, and when they 

 have heaved out the water they fasten a line to the 

 other manatee that lies afloat, and tow it after 

 them. I have known two Mosquito-men for a 

 week every day bring on board two manatees in 

 this manner, the least of which hath not weighed 

 less than 6oo pounds, and that in a very small 

 canoe, that three Englishmen would scarce adven- 

 ture to go in. When they strike a cow that hath 



a young one, they seldom miss the calf, for she 

 commonly takes the young one under one of her 

 fins." — The Voyages and Adventures of William 

 Dampier. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND 

 DESCENT OF THE SEA-COWS. 



The geographical distribution of the sea- 

 cows plainly shows that the type must 

 formerly have been more wide-spread than it 

 is now. The two species of manatees, which 

 are both in a great measure fresh-water forms, 

 are separated by the whole breadth of the 

 Atlantic, and it is scarcely conceivable that 

 these animals, living only on plants, should 

 at any time have been able to cross this wide 

 expanse of water. The dugong frequents 

 the shores of the Indian Ocean throughout 

 all its vast extent from Mozambique to the 

 north coasts of Australia, and it has only had 

 to cross arms of the sea of no great width in 

 order to extend its domain in this manner. 

 The third genus, the Rhytina, as we have 

 already stated, still swarmed in and near 

 Behring's Strait in the first half of last 

 century, the flocks of this harmless creature 

 feeding on the pastures of sea- weed on the' 

 coasts of Kamchatka, Northern Siberia, and 

 Western North America, as cows graze on 

 the pastures of the mainland. Thanks to 

 the ferocity of man this species is now com- 

 pletely extirpated. 



The sea-cows appear in both hemispheres 

 with the Miocene, and their remains are 

 found in all the deposits which were formed 

 along the coasts during this and the following 

 periods. There are genera very closely allied 

 to the manatees (Prorastomus in Jamaica), 

 others which can scarcely be distinguished 

 from the dugong (Felsinotherium in Italy), 

 others again which appear to occupy an 

 intermediate position (Halianassa, Metaxy- 

 therium) and which during the Miocene 

 were distributed from the west of France 

 through Germany as far as Vienna. The 



