454 
NATURAL HISTORY OF AFRICA. 
shaped behind like a fish ; a circumstance which 
connects it rather more with the whales than the 
morses. They form as it were the link by which 
palmated quadrupeds are connected with the ce- 
tacea. The head is roundish ; the body oblong, 
and ends in an oval fish-like tail ; jaws are pro- 
vided with grinders, of which there are eight 
on each side, and both in the upper and low- 
er jaws ; but there are neither canine nor fore- 
teeth. It has two swimming paws, provided with 
long nails, and the animal uses these paws as 
hands ; hence its name manatus, which has been 
further corrupted into lamantin, another name 
given to these animals. The mammae are placed 
high on the breast, and in the female are roundish 
and prominent. It grows fifteen feet and more in 
length. These animals occasionally raise them- 
selves more than half out of the water, when they 
appear somewhat like the human species, and have 
been described under the names merman and wr- 
maid. They occur at the mouth of the Congo and 
other great rivers in Africa. Drawings and de- 
scriptions of the manatus, under the names mer- 
men and mermaids, are given in the writings of 
early writers, as in the Relation Historique de 
L'Ethiopie Occidental, par L. P. Labat. Tome I. 
Few species of the whale or cetacous tribe are 
met with near the coasts of Africa ; and it would 
appear that these animals, as well as seals, are less 
