SEA 



they frequently rife to take breath, and often float on the 

 waves. 



In fummer they fleep on rocks or fand banks ; if furprifed, 

 they plunge into the fea, and when at a diltance fling up the 

 fand with their hind feet, and make a piteous moaning, as 

 they fcramble along ; and if they are overtaken, vigoroufly 

 defend themfclves with their feet and teeth : they are foon 

 killed by a flight blow on the nofe, otherwife they will fur- 

 vive many wounds. 



Thefe animals fwim with great ftrength and fpeed, and in 

 their own element fport without fear about fliips and boats, 

 which, fays Mr. Pennant, may have given rife to the fable of 

 fea-nymphs and fyrens. They are gentle and docile ; they 

 feed on all forts of fifli ; are themfelves good food, and 

 eat by voyagers : they are killed for the fake of the oil made 

 from their fat, of which a young feal will yield eight gallons ; 

 their flcins are ufeful in making wailtcoats, covers for trunks, 

 and other conveniencies ; and they are the wealth of the 

 Greenlanders, fupplying them with every neceflary of life. 



We have a draught of this animal in the Philofophical 

 Tranfaftions, N° 469, by Dr. Parfons, who obferves, that 

 Aldrovandus, Johnfton, Rondeletius, and Gcfner, have made 

 feveral millakes in the figures of this creature, fo as to con- 

 vey no jult idea of it. 



Upon diflefting one of thefe animals, the ilomacli, intef- 

 tines, bladder, kidneys, ureter, diaphragm, lungs, great 

 blood-vefl'els, and pudenda, were like thofe of the cow ; tlie 

 hairs of the whiflcers were very horny and clear ; the fplcen 

 was two feet long, four inches broad, and very thin ; the 

 liver confilted of fix lobes, each hanging as long and as lank 

 as the fpleen, with a very fmall gall-bladder. The beaft was 

 long and flabby in its contexture in general, having a large 

 foramen ovale, and very great columns carnofa:. In the 

 lower ftomach were about four pounds weight of flinty 

 pebbles, all fharp and angular, as if the animal chofe them 

 of that form for cutting the food. The uterus was of 

 the horned kind, each of the cornna being thicker than the 

 body or dudt leading to them : the ovaria were very large, 

 being granulated on the furface with the ova, under a very 

 thin membrane ; and the opening into the tubes leadmg to 

 the cornua is a great hole. 



The authors who have treated on this animal, are Ariftotle, 

 Pliny, Aldrovandus, Rondeletius, Gefner, Wolfgangius, 

 and .Tohnllon. 



This animal is viviparous, and fuckles its young by the 

 mamillas, like quadrupeds ; and its flefli is carnous and muf- 

 cular. That difiedled by Dr. Parfons was feven feet and an 

 half long, though very young, having ftarcely any teeth, 

 and having four holes regularly placed about tlie navel, 

 which in time became papillae. (See FiiOCA Fitiilina.) Sec 

 a defcription of other fpecies of feal, with figures, by Dr. 

 Parfons in Phil. Trani. vol. xlvii. p. 109, &c. and Pen- 

 nant's Hill. Quad. vol. ii. p. ji8, &c. 



SEA-C/>art. See Chaut. 



SuA-C/a)', in yigriculture, a muddy fort of clayey matter 

 found on the (horesand bordersof thefea, whicliisof ablackifll 

 or blueifli appearance, and often of a very iUff tenacious qua- 

 lity, not cafily mixing with earthy foils. It moltly lies under- 

 neath the fandy ouzy matters that are collcfted in fuch fitu- 

 ations. Sec SEA-5'anfl'. 



In Lancafliire they make ufe of a fat fort of fea-clay , which 

 is dug out clofe to the fhore on the lefs (tiff forts of land, when 

 in the (late of fallow for wheat, in the proportion of about 

 zoo fingle horfe cart-loads to the acre, and beheve it to an- 

 fwer better than the common fea-fand, or even fandy mud. 

 It may probably be of a marly nature. 



SEA-CoaJi. See Coast. 



SEA 



SzA-Compcifs. See Compass. 



Sea-Coto, in Zoology the Englifh name of the manati, a 

 ipecies of filh fo difl'erent from all the other cetaceous tribe, 

 to which It properly belongs, that Artedi, in his new fyftem 

 ot ichthyology, allots it a peculiar generical name, which is 

 tnchecus: in the Linnxan fyftem it is the TiuniECL-s manatu:, 

 which fee. This fpecies has thick lips, very fmall eyes, 

 two fmall orifices in the place of ears ; neck fliort, and 

 thicker than the he.id ; the greateft thicknefs of the body 

 13 about the (boulders, from which it grows gradually fmaller 

 to the tail, which lies horizontall)-, being broad, and thick- 

 eft in the middle, and growing thinner to the edges, and 

 quite round. Tlie feet arc placed at the (boulders ; beneath 

 the flcins are bones for five complete toes, and externally 

 arc three or four nails flat and rounded ; near the bafe of 

 each foot in the female is a teat ; the flcin is very thick 

 and h.ird, having a few hairs fcattcred over it, whence the 

 name trtcheais, formed of .5fi^, hair, and ^x'^o ,fjh. Thofe 

 animals of this fpecies, that were ineafured by Dampier in 

 the Weft Indies, vtieve ten or twelve feet long; their tail 

 tvveiity inches in length, fourteen in breadth, and four or five 

 thick in the middle, and two at the edges ; and the largeft 

 of them weighed twelve hundred pounds ; but fome have 

 been mentioned, the length of which has been fixteen feet 

 and a half, and even twenty feet. 



According to Dampier, thofe which inhabit frefh waters 

 are much lefs than the others : they inhabit the rivers of 

 Africa, from that of Senegal to the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and abound in certain parts of the eaftern coafts and rivers 

 of South America, about the bay of Honduras, fome of 

 the greater Antilles, the rivers of Oronoque and of the 

 Amazons. 



They fometimes live in the fea, and often near the mouth 

 of fome river, into which they come once or twice in twenty- 

 four hours, for the fake of feeding on the marine plants, and 

 they are fonder of brackilh or fweet water than of the fait ; 

 and delight in ftiallow water near low land, and in places 

 fecure from furges, and where the tides run gently. They 

 are faid to frolic and leap fometimes out of the water to 

 a great height. Their fiefh and fat are white, fweet, and 

 falubrious ; and the tail i)f a young female is much eftecmed, 

 and a fuckliug roafted highly delicious. The thicker part 

 of the flvin, cut firft into lengths of two or three feet, 

 ferves for whips, &c. and becomes tough, when dried, as 

 wood. 



Thefe animals are taken by a harpoon ftuck in the end 

 of a ftafl^, which the Indians ufe with great dexterity. If 

 a female with a young one is (truck, (he takes it under its 

 fins or feet, and (hews, in extremity, the greateft affeftion 

 for its oftspring ; and the young one never torfakcs its cap- 

 tured parent, but becomes a lure prey to the harpooner. 



This animal is called by Herrera taiirus marinus, or the 

 fca-lniU, and by others the iachas and la donna. The French 

 call it lamantln, or namentin, and the Portuguefe^ciic mmiller. 



It may fecm (Irange, that fo ill-lhaped a creature as this 

 (hoiild have given rile to the ftories of the fyrens and mer- 

 maids, the fea-mcn and (ea-womcn, yet there ii great reafon 

 to believe, that all the fabulous accounts of tlufc monflers, 

 are owing to the fight of this animal, and of the common 

 feal, when raifing their head and Hioulder.i above tlic water. 

 Sec Ska -man. 



Mr. Pennant has defcribcd an animal of this fpecies ; 

 which he calls the whale-tailed manati, and which the 

 Riiniaiis diftinguifh by the name of the nmrjha'm laroma, or 

 fva-coiu. This animal, whofe feet are merely peroral fins, 

 and fcrve only for fwimming, brings forth in the w.iter, and, 

 like the whale, fuckle.t its young in that clement ; like the 

 R 2 wliale, 



