1850.] 
THE COW-FISH. 
185 
whole is generally manufactured into rolls of two or four 
pounds each. The proper quantity is weighed out, and 
placed regularly in layers on a table in a row about a 
yard long, rather thicker in the middle. Beginning at 
one end, this is carefully rolled up and wound round 
with a cord as tightly as possible. In a few days these 
rolls are opened out, to see if there is any tendency to 
heat or mould, and if all is right they are again made up 
with greater care. Every day they are rebound tighter 
and tighter, the operator sitting on the ground with the 
cord twisted round a post, and winding and tightening 
with all his strength, till at length the roll has become 
compressed into a solid mass about an inch in diameter, 
and gradually tapering towards each end. It is then 
wound closely from end to end with a neat strip of the 
rind of the Uaruma (a water-ru&h), and tied up in bun- 
dles of an arroba and half an arroba (thirty-two and six- 
teen pounds), and is ready for sale. When the tobacco 
is good, or has, as they term it, “ much honey in it,'’ it 
will cut as smooth and solid as a piece of Spanish 
liquorice, and caif be bent double without cracking. 
The price varies according to the quality and the supply, 
from to 1<^. per pound. 
One day the fisherman brought us in a fine “ peixe 
boi,” or cow-fish, a species of Manatus, which inhabits 
the Amazon, and is particularly abundant in the lakes in 
this part of the river. It was a female, about six feet 
long, and near five in circumference in the thickest part. 
The body is perfectly smooth, and without any projec- 
tions or inequalities, gradually changing into a horizon- 
tal semicircular flat tail, with no appearance whatever of 
