1859.] On the Great Rorqual of the Indian Ocean. 497 



sembles good beef, and is much esteemed. The oil obtained from 

 its fat is peculiarly clear and limpid, and is free from any disagree- 

 able smell, such as most animal oils are accompanied with. It has 

 not yet been produced in sufficient quantities to acquire a recog- 

 nized market value. The blacks devour the carcase of the Duyong 

 roasted, after expressing the oil for sale to the colonists."* 



Of the Indian Duyong we possess a small stuffed specimen, pre- 

 sented by the Batavian Society in 1845 ; and the lower jaw, scapu- 

 Jw, and four ribs of a larger but still young individual, recently 

 found in an Andaman hut. The Andaman islands are the most 

 northern locality as yet ascertained for the species in the Bay of 

 Bengal ; and it must be rare there, or the bones would more fre- 

 quently be found to decorate those rude lairs (huts they cannot 

 justly be termed, together with the skulls of the small Sus anda- 

 maneksis and of Turtles. On the west coast of Ceylon, Mr. Layard 

 notices that Duyongs are common in the Gulf of Calpentyn ; the 

 flesh of this animal being there also held in esteem. Sir J. E. 

 Tennent, again, remarks their occurrence in all the salt-water inlets 

 from the Gulf of Calpentyn to Adam's Bridge. They are found 

 likewise along the shore and in the salt-water inlets of theConcan, 

 where, as not long ago ascertained by the Rev. J. Baker, Junr., of 

 Mundakyum, Alipi, on that coast, they are known to Europeans 

 as " the Seal." That gentleman took some pains to discover what the 

 animal could be, and found that it was the Duyong, which came to 

 feed on the vegetable matter found about the rocks, as well as to 



* * The Three Colonies of A ustralia' (p. 337). By Samuel Sidney. London 

 1852. In a recent anonymous work, entitled e Rambles at the Antipodes,' &c. 

 (1859), the Duyong is mentioned as the Yangan of the aborigines. This author, 

 like every other (from the time of Sir Stamford Raffles and before), describes the 

 meat of the Duyong to be excellent. " When fresh having the taste of tender 

 beef, and when salted nearly resembling bacon." Hence, perhaps, the appellation 

 1 Sea Pig.' The Duyong, it is added, " yields an oil, which is found, in cases of 

 scrofula and other diseases, to be more efficacious than cod-liver oil." The latter 

 would seem to be rising in demand ; worse luck for the animal ! A friend 

 informs vis that it is most difficult to obtain even a portion of Duyong meat at 

 Malacca ; as, no sooner is a specimen captured, than it is at once cut up and 

 cooked by the Malays. Hence the difficulty of obtaining museum specimens. 



