448 



one of these animals, which was nine feet long, 

 at Carichana, a mission of the Oroonoko. The 

 upper lip was four inches longer than the lower. 

 It is covered with a very fine skin, and serves as 

 a proboscis or probe to distinguish surrounding 

 objects. The inside of the mouth, which has a 

 sensible warmth in an animal newly killed, pre- 

 sents a very singular conformation. The tongue 

 is almost motionless ; but before the tongue there 

 is a fleshy excrescence in each jaw, and a con- 

 cavity, lined with a very hard skin, into which 

 the excrescence fits. The manatee eats such 

 quantities of grass, that we have found it's sto- 

 mach, which is divided into several cavities, and 

 it's intestines, which are a hundred and eight 

 feet long, alike filled with it. On opening the 

 animal at the back, we were struck with the 

 magnitude, form, and situation of it's lungs. 

 They have very large cells, and resemble im- 

 mense swimming bladders. They are three feet 

 long. Filled with air, they have a bulk of more 

 than a thousand cubic inches. I was surprised 

 to see, that, possessing such considerable recep- 

 tacles for air, the manatee comes so often to the 

 surface of the water to breathe. It's flesh, which 



West India islands, my Rec. d Observations de Zool., vol. ii, 

 p. 170. Father Caulin has already said of the manatee, 

 " Tiene dos brazuelos sin division dededosy sin unas t ." (Hist, de 

 Naeva Andalousia, p. 49.) 



