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they are filled, they fall asleep on their backs. 
During their meals they are so intent on their 
food, that any one may go among them, and 
phoose which he likes best. Their back and 
Sides are generally above water ; and num- 
bers of gulls, from time to time, perch on their 
backs, in order to pick the insects which they 
find upon them. 
They continue in the Kamtschatkan and 
American seas the whole year; but in winter 
;they are very lean, so that one may count 
their ribs. They are taken by harpoons 
fastened to a strong cord; and after they are 
struck, it requires the force of thirty men to 
draw them on shore. Sometimes, when they 
are transfixed, they will lay hold of the rocks 
with their paws, and stick so fast as to leave 
the skin behind before they can be forced off. 
When a manati is struck, its companions 
swim to its assistance : some will attempt to 
overturn the boat, by getting under it; 
others will press down the rope, in order to 
[break it ; and others will strike at the har- 
Ipoon with their tails, with a view of getting 
;it out, in which they often succeed. They 
-have no voice ; but make a noise, by hard 
breathing, like the snorting of a horse. 
They are of an enormous size : some are 
twenty-eight feet long, and eight thousand 
pounds weight: but, if the Mindanao species 
L the same with this, it decreases in size as it 
[advances southward, for the largest which 
[Dampier saw there weighed only six hundred 
pounds. The head, in proportion to the bulk 
of the, animal, is small, oblong, and almost 
'square: the nostrils are filled with short bris- 
tles; the gape or rictus is small ; the lips are 
double ; near the junction of the two jaws the 
mouth is full of white tubular bristles, which 
serve the same purpose as the lamina; in 
frwhales, to prevent the food from running 
out with the water : the lips are also full of 
bristles, which serve instead of teeth to cut 
the strong roots of sea-plants, which, floating 
ashore, are a sign of the vicinity of these ani- 
; mals. In the mouth are no teeth ; only two 
! flat white bones, one in each jaw, one above, 
•another below, with undulated surfaces, which 
serve instead of grinders. 
The eyes are extremely small, not larger 
[than those of a sheep: instead of ears are only 
| two minute orifices, which will scarcely per- 
■ mit a quill to enter: the tongue is pointed 
| and small : the neck thick, and its junction 
| with the head scarcely distinguishable; and 
‘ the last always hangs down. 
The circumference of the body near the 
f shoulders is twelve feet ; about the belly twen- 
f'ty; near the tail only four feet eight inches: 
'the head thirty-one inches: the neck near 
j seven feet: and from these measurements may 
I be collected the deformity of the animal. Near 
* the shoulders are two feet, or ratherfins, which 
are only two feet two inches long, and have 
[neither fingers nor nails; beneath they are 
j; concave, and covered with hard bristles ; the 
{ tail is thick, strong, and horizontal, ending in a 
[ stiff black fin, and like the substance of whale- 
| bone, being much split on the fore part and 
I slightly forked; but both ends are of equal 
f length like the whale. 
The skin is very thick, hard, and black ; 
f full of inequalities, like the bark of oak ; 
i so hard as scarcely to be cut with an ax, 
| and has no hair upon it : beneath the skin is a 
: thick blubber, which is said to taste like oil of 
almonds. The flesh is coarser than beef, and 
will not soon putrefy : the young ones taste 
like veal: the skin is used for shoes, and for 
covering the sides of boats. The Russians 
call this animal morskaia korowa or sea-cow, 
and kapustnik or eater of herbs. 
4.Trichechus australis, round-tailed manati. 
This species grows to the length of fourteen or 
fifteen feet, and is found in the rivers of Afri- 
ca; particularly in the river Senegal: the 
lips are thick; the eyes as small as peas; and 
there are two very small orifices in the place 
of ears : in each jaw on each side are nine 
grinding teeth, in all thirty-six : the neck is 
short anil thicker than the head: the greatest 
thickness of the body is about the should- 
from whence it gradually tapers to tire tail, 
which is horizontal, broad, thickest in the 
middle, growing thinner to the edges, and 
quite round. The feet are placed at the 
shoulders; and beneath the skin are banes' 
for five complete toes, and externally are three 
or four nails, fiat and rounded: near the base 
of each leg, in the female is a small teat. The 
flesh of this animal is said to resemble veal : 
it is, however, chiefly killed by the negroes 
for the sake of the blubber or fat. 
TRICHIURUS, a genus of fishes of the 
order apodes; the generic character is, head 
stretched forwards, with lateral gill-covers; 
teeth ensiform, semisagittate at the tips ; gill- 
membrane seven-rayed ; body ensiform, com- 
pressed, with subulate finless tail. 
1. Trichiurus argenteus, silver trichiure. 
This fish is equally distinguished by the singu- 
larity of its shape, and brilliancy of its colour: 
the body is extremely compressed, of a great 
length, and gradually tapers as it approaches 
the extremity, till at length it terminates in a 
very fine point : the whole fish, except on the 
fins, is of the brightest silver-colour : the head 
is narrow ; the mouth very wide, the lower 
jaw longer than the upper, and furnished with 
differently sized teeth, the longest of which 
are barbed at the tips by a sharp descending 
processor hook on one side : the tongue is 
smooth, longish, and triangular: in the throat 
are two rough bones : the eyes are vertical, 
approximated, and large: the lateral line is 
of a gold-colour, and, commencing behind 
the gill-covers, is continued to the tip of the 
tail: tiie dorsal fin, which is of moderate 
width,- transparent, and of a yellowish tinge, 
commences almost immediately behind the 
head, and runs to within a very small 
distance of the extremity of the tail, at 
which part it degenerates into a mere mem- 
brane, being strongly radiated in other 
parts : the pectoral fins are rather small, and 
of an ovate shape: there is, properly speaking, 
no direct vent-tin, but a series of very small 
naked spines or rays, to the number of about 
1 10, are continued from the vent, which is si- 
tuated about the middle of the body, to near 
the tip of the tail. The general length of 
this fish is from two to three feet: it is said to 
be of a very voracious nature, swims with ra- 
pidity, and in the pursuit of its prey sometimes 
leaps into small vessels which happen to be 
sailing by. It is a native of the rivers and 
larger lakes of South America, and is consi- 
dered as an eatable fish. It is also said to be 
found in some parts of India, and in China. 
See Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 407. 
2. Trichiurus electricus, electrical trichiure. 
This species, which seems nearly equal in size 
5 L 2 
» 
819 
to the preceding, differs no! only in the con- 
formation of the jaws, which are both of equal 
length, but in the form of its teeth, which are 
all very minute: the tail is not so extremely 
slender and sharp as in the former, and the 
colour of the whole animal is pale brown, va- 
riegated with spots of a deeper cast. It is a na- 
tive of the Indian seas, and is said to possess 
a degree of electrical power. T here are only 
these two species. 
TRICHODA, a genus of vermes infusoria; 
the generic character is, a worm invisible, pel- 
lucid, hairy or horned. Ample accounts of 
this genus, which is very numerous, will be 
found in Adams’s work on the Microscope. 
See Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 406. There are 
about sixty species. 
TRICOCEPHALUS, a genus of vermes 
intestina. The generic character i-s, body 
round, elastic, and variously twisted ; head or 
fore part much thicker, and furnished with a 
slender exsertile proboscis ; tail or lower part 
long, capillary, and tapering to a fine point. 
There are six species: T. hominis, see Plate 
Nat. Hist. fig. 405, inhabits the intestines of 
sickly children, generally the ca?cum, and in 
considerable numbers: about two inches long 
and resembling tire ascarides in colour. The 
other species are named from animals on which 
they live, as the equi, apri, muris, vulpis, and 
lacertx. 
TRICHILIA, a genus of the class and or- 
der decandria monogynia. The calyx is 
mostly five-toothed ; petals five ; nectarium 
toothed; capsules three-celled, three-valved ; 
seeds berried. There are 12 species, trees 
chiefly of the West Indies. 
TRTCHOCARPUS, a genus of the class 
and order polyandria digynia. The calyx is 
four or five parted ; no corolla ; styles two, 
bifid ; capsules bristly', four-valved, many- 
seeded. These is one species, a tree of Gui- 
ana. 
TRICHOMANES, a genus of plants of the 
class cryptogamia, and order filices. The 
parts of fructification are solitary ; and termi- 
nated by a stile like a bristle, on every edge 
of the leaf. There are 27 species; of which 
two are natives of Britain, the pixidiferum 
and tunbrigense. 1. Pixidiferum, or cup- 
trichomanes, lias subbipinnated leaves, the. 
pinnae being alternate, close-lobed and linear.. 
It is found among stones in wet grounds in 
England. 2. Tunbrigense, or Tunbridge tri- 
chomanes, has pinnated leaves, the pinna? 
being oblong, dichotomous, decurrent, anil 
dentated. It is found in the fissures of moist 
rocks in Wales, and in many rocky places in 
Scotland. 
TICOCCEiE, the name of the 38th order 
in Linnaeus’s Fragments of a Natural Method, 
consisting of plants with a singje three-cor- 
nered capsule, having 3 cells or internal di- 
visions, each containing a single seed. See 
Botany. 
TRICGSANTHES, a genus of plants 
of the class monoecia, and order synge- 
nesia, and in the natural system ranging under 
the 34th order, cucurbitaceae. There are 
seven species ; only one of which is cul- 
tivated in the British gardens, the auguina or 
snake-gourd, which is a native of China, ;m 
anuual, and of the cucumber tribe. 
TRICOSTEMA, a genus of the cPicly- 
namia gymnospermia class of plants, with u 
