MANATI TRIBE, &C» 
171 
MANATI TRIBE. * 
Tee animals of this tribe are destitute of fore 
teeth in both jaws. From the upper jaw, how- 
ever, proceed two great tusks, which point down- 
wards. The grinders have wrinkled surfaces. 
The lips are doubled. The hind feet are at 
the extremity of the body, and unite into a kind 
of fin. 
The manati are entirely marine ; feeding on sea- 
weeds, corallines, and shell-fish, and not carni- 
vorous. Their elongated body, declining in bulk 
from the head gradually to the tail, and their 
short fin-like feet, give them some alliance to the 
fishy tribes. They may indeed be considered as 
forming one of those steps in nature, by which 
we are conducted from one great division of the 
animal world to the other. Though the general 
residence of all the species is in the sea, yet some 
of them are perfectly amphibious, and live with 
equal ease on the land and in water. 
Arctic walrus. 
These animals, which are sometimes seen eigh- 
teen feet long, and ten or twelve in circumference, 
are inhabitants of the coasts of the Magdalene is- 
lands, in the gulph of St. Lawrence. They are 
usually found in vast multitudes floating on the 
ice. In their upper jaw they have two long tusks 
bending downwards, which they use in scraping 
shell-fish and other prey out of the sand, and from 
the rocks. The further use of these is in ascend- 
ing the islands of ice, the animals fixing them 
in the cracks, and upon them drawing up their 
