357 
M A N A T L 
red on the bell)". Steller could difcover neither feet 
nor paws. It was full of frolick, and played a 
thoufand monky tricks; fometimes fwimming on 
one fide, fometimes on the other fide of the fnip, 
looking at it with great amazement. It would come 
fo near the fhip that it might be touched with a 
pole; but i i any body ftirred, would immediately 
retire. It often raifed one-third of its body above 
the water, and Hand erect for ^ confiderable time; 
then fuddenly dart under the fhip, and appear in the 
fame attitude on the other fide; and would repeat 
this for thirty times together. It would frequently 
bring up a fea plant not unlike the bottle gourd, 
which it would tofs about and catch again in its 
mouth, playing numberlefs fantaftic tricks with it. 
Another obfcure animal of this clafs is the Be¬ 
luga % found in the gulph of Ochotjk , or the fea 
between Kamtfchatka and 'Tartary *, in that between 
Kamtfchatka and America , oppofite to the river Ana- 
dir , and in the frozen fea near the mouth of the 
Jenefei . It is 15 or 20 feet long, and three or four 
thick: it agrees with the feal in its feet and tail: 
its teeth are like a cow’s : on the neck are two holes, 
through which it fpouts water : there is hair on the 
body, but fo thin that the white fkin appears thro’ 
it: lives on fifh : is gregarious: carries its young 
on its back : Hums fhallow places; feldom goes near 
the ihore, or up rivers : yet the celebrated JVitfch , 
in his book called Norden op Tartarye , fays that it 
• Beluga , or white Hfh, from the color of its fkin : mufl be dif- 
tinguifhed from a fpecies of Iturgeon of the fame name, taken in 
the Wolga, Don ? &c. 
A a 3 
Beluca. 
goes 
