112 
But, since it is completely proved that the existence of the 
hippopotamus is essentially connected with that of large sheets of 
fresh water, Dampier’s observation would naturally lead to the 
belief that such occur in the neighbourhood of Sharks Bay. Such a 
consequence being supported by some other particulars given by 
the English captain, and especially by the complete ignorance in 
which he leaves us concerning all the details of this vast gulf, it is 
not surprising that several geographers have fixed on this point as 
the mouth of one of those great rivers which they consider must 
exist in New Plolland. This last hypothesis having been completely 
destroyed by the excellent surveys of Messrs. Frevcinet and Faure, 
it remains to discover what was the animal which could have de- 
ceived such a clever observer as Dampier, and all our researches had 
been in vain up to this time. A happy chance finally furnished us 
with the solution of the problem, and this last discovery was also 
the result of M. RansonneEs explorations in Hamelin Harbour. 
Quite near to the place where Lefevre was almost devoured by 
a shark lay stretched on the shore an animal 20-22 elms. (6ft.-7ft.) 
long, half decomposed by putrefaction, which appeared to our 
sailors so different from the seals that these worthy men thought 
they would bring me at least some pieces of it; not being able to 
bring the entire head, on account of the horrible stench which it 
gave off, they pulled out seven teeth, which they presented to me. 
I readily recognised that these teeth had belonged to a herbivorous 
animal like the hippopotamus, but they differed essentially from 
those which characterise the latter genus. They belonged, in fact, 
to a dugong, 1 a little-known marine mammal, which appears to 
be confined to the Indian Ocean. “This animal,” says Leguat, the 
ancient navigator who gives the most details about them, “attains a 
length of 20 feet ... It feeds in flocks like sheep, in only 3 or 
4 feet of water ... We sometimes found three or four hundred 
together feeding on the grass at the bottom of the water . . . We 
never saw this animal on land.. I doubt whether it could draw itself 
up onto it, and I do not believe it is amphibious” (Leguat, Voy., 
Yol. I., pp. 94-96). 
“Each of these prodigious fish,” says Barchewitz, “was more 
than 6 aunes (23 feet) long; the male was a little larger than the 
female; their head resembled that of an ox . . . When we killed 
them, they were travelling (at some toises (fathoms) of depth), 
and were eating a green grass which grew on the coast” (Barche- 
witz, Ost-Indian Reise-Beschreib., p. 381). 
It is to this herbivorous character, which only the dugong in 
this region shares with the hippopotamus, that the mistake of 
Dampier must doubtless be attributed; the mistake was the more 
excusable since the celebrated traveller saw only a head half decom- 
posed by digestion. With respect to the two longer teeth of which 
1 Halicore dugong, Illig. 
