THE MANATEE. 
343 
watched, it seems to be the front side of the tube 
itself elevated by muscular action to close, and de- 
pressed to open, the nostril.* 
The small eyes are deeply sunk, and hidden be- 
neath projecting eyebrows : I could not see any 
eyelids or lashes. The region around and beneath 
these organs was maintained in a constant state of 
wetness, by the exudation of tears. 
A slight depression down the mesial line of the 
back marks the course of the spine. The swimming- 
paws are little indeed like hands, and the nails could 
not have been detected, if they had not been looked 
for : they are broad, rough, and black, and are 
distinguished from the skin of the foot only by a 
depression around their bases : that is, as in the 
human nails, the base is lower than the surrounding 
flesh. I could find only three on each paw. I 
should much doubt the derivation of Manatee,” or 
as the negroes call it, Manantee, from manatus, 
handed. If these were indeed the mermaids” seen 
by Columbus off the mouth of the Yaqui in Haiti, 
he might well say that they were by no means the 
beautiful beings that they had been represented, 
even though viewed under the influence of that 
couleur de rose, which his excited imagination was 
then casting upon every thing he saw. 
The animal allowed itself to be dragged about. 
* Looking at the Hippopotamus in the Zoological Gardens, I was 
lately struck with its mode of breathing, while in the water. The 
periodical and sudden opening of the valvular nostrils, and the ex- 
plosive emission of the air, forcibly recalled to my memory the 
Manatee of Jamaica. 
