1859.] On the Great Rorqual of the Indian Ocean. 495 



conspicuously in external colouring from H. irdicus ; but such ap- 

 pears to be the fact from the (olio wing notice : — 



Peron only saw a few teeth ; but he mentions one of these animals which " lay 

 extended on the beach, of 20 to 22 decimetres [6| to 7 ft. English] in length, 

 already half-decomposed by putrefaction, and which appeared to our sailors," 

 he adds, " so different from the Phocce, that they thought they ought to bring 

 its remains to me. Unable to bring the entire head, on account of the extreme 

 stench which it exhaled, they tore from it seven teeth, which they offered me. It 

 was easy for me to discover that these teeth belonged to a herbivorous animal. 

 They proved, in fact, to be the teeth of a Dugon, a mammiferous sea-animal, but 

 little known, and which appears to be confined to the Indian Ocean." He then 

 cites Leguat's account ; but this worthy writer observed them at the Mascarine 

 Islands (Mauritius, Rodriguez, &c), where they are now, so far as I can learn, 

 quite extinct, and the species may have been different, — perhaps that from the 

 Red Sea, styled H. tabernaculi by Dr. Ruppell : it may, however, still be found 

 off Madagascar and the neighbouring coast of Africa. 



Leguat, with his party of French protestant refugees, settled on the then unin- 

 habited island of Rodriguez in 1691, and remained there for two years. His ac- 

 count is celebrated for the description of the now extinct ' Solitaire ;' and his 

 accuracy in other matters has been established. He mentions Duyongs as inha- 

 biting the shores of the Mascarine Islands " in great numbers. They attained 

 to 20 ft. in length, and fed in flocks like Sheep in three or four fathoms' water, 

 making no attempt at escape when approached. Sometimes they were shot at 

 the end of the musket, sometimes laid hold of and forced on shore. Three or 

 four hundred were met with together, and they were so far from shy that they 

 suffered themselves to be handled, and the fattest were thus selected. The larger 

 ones were avoided, not only on account of the trouble they gave in the capture, 

 but because their flesh was not so good as that of the smaller and younger ones." 

 {Penny Ct/clopcedia. Art. ' Whales'.) 



The H. tabernaculi of the Red Sea, Dr. Ruppell " saw swimming among 

 the coral banks on the Abyssinian coast near the Dalac Islands. The fishermen 

 harpooned a female, which he dissected, 10 ft. long. The Arabs stated that they 

 live in pairs or small families, that they have feeble voices, feed on alg<B y and 

 that on February and March bloody battles take place between the males, which 

 attain to 18 ft." &c. (ibid.) 



Sir Stamford Rallies remarks that " the Duyongs are seldom caught at Singa- 

 pore above 8 or 9 ft. in length ; but how much larger they grow is not ascer- 

 tained, as, when they exceed that size, cheir superior strength enables them to 

 make their escape." 



Barchemitz remarks, of those of Australia, that — " Each of these enormous 

 fish is more than 21 ft. long ; the male is a little larger than the female : their 

 heads resembled that of an Ox, They live upon a green grass which grows upon 



the banks," 



8 2 



