VACA MARINA. 



167 



a small glass to drink spirits, twenty-five cents ; a small basin to wash 

 the face in, twenty-five cents; looking-glass of one and a half foot long, 

 and a foot wide, seventy-five cents ; penknife of one blade, fifty cents ; 

 small hand-bells for the churches, fifty cents; a pair of coarse scissors, 

 eighteen and three-quarter cents ; a long-pointed, white-handled knife, 

 thirty-seven and a half cents; small slates, with pencil and sponge, one 

 dollar ; coarse sabres, with wooden handle, seventy-five cents ; jews- 

 harp, twelve and a half cents ; horn buttons, six and a quarter cents the 

 dozen. Morey gave for a common Yankee clock, on the Amazon, 

 seventeen dollars and fifty cents. These are money values. 



One will be told that these articles are sold at double these prices ; 

 but money, on account of its scarcity, is worth double its nominal value; 

 thus a yard of tocuyo, (the most common currency,) which is always 

 valued in Nauta, Pebas, Loreto, &c, at twenty-five cents in exchange 

 for efectos, or goods, may be bought there for twelve and a half cents, 

 specie. * The traveller should be aware of this, or he may be paying 

 double prices for things. 



The salt fish brought up from below is in large pieces of about eight 

 pounds each, cut from the vaca marina — the payshi, a fish of one 

 hundred and fifty pounds weight — and the gamitana, a large flat fish, 

 like the skate. The piece is worth twelve and a half cents, money, in 

 Tarapoto, and twenty-five cents in Moyobamba. 



The vaca marina (sea cow) of the Spaniards, and peixe boy (fish ox) 

 of the Portuguese, (also found in our Florida streams, and there called 

 manatee}) is found in great numbers on the Amazon and its principal 

 tributaries. It is an animal averaging, when full grown, about nine 

 feet in length and six in circumference. It has much the appearance 

 of a large seal, with a smooth skin, dark on the back, a dirty white on 

 the belly, and thinly sprinkled with coarse hairs. The eyes and ears 

 (or rather holes for hearing) are very small. The mouth is also small, 

 though it looks large on the outside, on account of a very thick and wide 

 upper lip, which is shaped like that of an ox. In the one I examined, 

 which was a young female, I could discover neither tongue nor teeth, 

 but a thick, rough, and hard, fleshy cushion attached to both upper and 

 lower jaws, which seemed to me very well adapted to masticating the 

 grass which grows upon the banks of the river, and which is its princi- 

 pal food. The tail is broad and flat, and is placed horizontally. This, 

 with two large fins far in advance, and very near the jaws, enables it to 

 move in the water with considerable rapidity. It is not able to leave 

 the water ; but in feeding it gets near the shore and raises its head 

 out. It is, when feeding, most often taken by the Indians. An orcli- 



