1878. ] The Sirenia. 291 
THE SIRENIA. 
BY ARTHUR E. BROWN. 
AS the name of this curious order of aquatic mammals was 
suggested, without doubt, by the probability that they, in great 
measure, gave origin to the ancient myths regarding the existence 
of sirens or mermaids, it may not be inappropriate to take a first 
look at the animal as it appeared to a sailor of Capt. Weddell’s 
Expedition towards the South Pole, about the close of the first 
quarter of the present century. “The sailor had lain down and 
about ten o’clock he heard a noise resembling human cries; and 
as daylight in these latitudes never disappears at this season, he 
rose and looked round, but on seeing no person he returned to 
bed; presently he heard the noise again, rose a second time, but 
still saw nothing. Conceiving, however, the possibility of a boat 
being upset, and that some of the crew might be clinging to some 
detached rocks, he walked along the beach a few steps and heard 
the noise more distinctly, but in a musical strain. Upon search- 
ing round he saw an object lying on a rock a dozen yards from 
the shore at which he was somewhat frightened. The face and 
shoulders appeared of human form and of a reddish color; over 
the shoulders hung long green hair; the tail resembled that of 
the seal, but the extremities of the arms he could not see dis- 
tinctly. The creature continued to make a musical noise while 
he gazed about two minutes, and on perceiving him it disappeared 
in an instant.” 
Notwithstanding the fact that the sailor testified his belief in 
his story by making a cross in the sand and kissing it, we who 
look on the manatee and dugong, with minds cleared from a 
delusive belief in mermaids and mermen, are tempted to agree 
with Capt. Weddell in the last clause of which he makes use in 
relating the circumstance: “I concluded he must really have 
seen the animal he described, or that it must have been the effects 
of a disturbed imagination.” 
Naturalists, however, have had almost as much trouble, in times 
past, to determine where these animals structurally belong, as the 
old explorers had to decide whether they were forms of earthly 
or supernatural origin. They were classed in the old order 
Pachydermata on account of their points of resemblance to the 
elephant ; then they were put with the whale and the porpoise in 
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