51 OUND-T AILED M-ANATI. 
feet long, and weighing eight thousand pounds ; . 
tlie Guiana Manati grows to the length of six- 
teen or eighteen feet ; the Manati of Clusius 
is said to be sixteen feet and a half ; the Oro- 
iioko Manati has been found so large, that 
twenty-seven men could not draw it out of the 
water; and the Sea- Ape, which we can 
scarcely consider as a Manati, is only about 
five feet long. 
Brisson, and some others, describe the Ma- 
nati by the appellation of the Lamantia : a 
name which has been applied to this animal, 
on account of it's lamentable cries. This, 
however, as BufFon observes, is entirely fabu- 
lous. He informs us, that the word Lamantia 
is a corruption of the name given to the animal 
in the language of the Galibis, who inhabit 
Guiana ; and of the Caribs, who live in the 
Antilles : for they are the same race of people, 
and have nearly the sam^e language. They 
call the Lamantia the Manati; from which., the 
Negroes of the French islands, who corrupt 
words of every kind, by adding the article, 
made it Lamanati:- from Lamanati, they siill 
farther corrupted it into Lamannati, and La- 
mcnti. After this, it was supposed to be de- 
rived 
