It is alleged that formerly they were so plentiful within ten or twelve leagues of Cayenne, that a large boat might be filled with them in a single day, when their flesh was sold in the market at about ad. perlb. But the eagerness with which it was purchased soon reduced the numbers, and made them comparatively scarce.
The capture is generally effected by moans of the harpoon. At St. Domingo the hunters approached them in a small boat, and struck them with a large harpoon to which a long stout cord was made fast. The stricken animal made violent efforts to escape, carrying with it the harpoon and cord, to the end of which a cork or piece of light wood to serve as a buoy was attached, and indicated the whereabouts of the Manatee. After a while the hunters took bold of the rope and at last drew the exhausted animal on shore, where it was killed. The sport of Manatee-catehing, thus conducted, is described as highly exciting, but the boat is sometimes upset by the struggles of the animal in the shoals.
Manatees have reached Europe. The carcass of one which had been long deed, is recorded to have come on shore at Newhaven in the Frith of Forth, in the autumn of 1785 ; and Duhamel states that one with its cub was thrown on shore near Dieppe.
projected from their sockets. Not more than 20 grinders, 5 on each aide of the jaw, appear to be developed in this animal.
if. Sencgalcnsia, the Lamantin. This species is a native of the west coast of Africa. It is the Manatus Senegalesai4 of Desmarest ; Lamantin of Adanson ; Lamantin du Senegal of Daubenton ; the Woman-Fieh of Purchas ; the Round-Tailed Manati of Pennant.
Ilalicore Dugong, Indian Dugong. It is the Trichechua Lagting of Omelin ; Livangua Indica' of Hamilton ; Le Dugong des hides of French writers.
The head of this Dugong is small in proportion to the body, which in general form much resembles that of the Manatee. The large upper lip is thick and obliquely truncated, and the truncated surface, which forms the short and nearly vertical snout, is furnished with soft papillae and a few bristles. A horny aubstauee covers the the upper of which is very moveable and tumid on the edge ; the lower is much smaller, resembling a round or oblong chin. Thee inside of the cheeks is furnished with strong projecting bristles. The
nostrils are situated on the summit of the upper jaw, where it curves downwards, end penetrate obliquely, so that the upper semilunar edge presses upon the lower surface to form a valve capable of being shut at the will of the animal. The eyes are small. The little aperture of the ear is hardly perceptible. The inamme are placed on the chest, beneath the thick and fleshy flippers or pawn, which are rather warty on their anterior edge ; but there is uo appearance of I nails. The tail is broad, and lobated or creecenteshaposh The skin is three-quarters of an inch thick, of a uniform bluish colour, sometimes blotched with white below. Length front 7 to 8 feet.
The attention of Prof...ester Owen was particularly directed to the state of the dentition of the Dugongs of different sexes which he examined, from which it appeared that, as in the Narwhal, the perma nent tusks of the female are arrested in their growth, and remain throughout life concealed 'within the substance of the intermnaxillary pones and the alveolar integument. The cavity of the tusks, he states, is in like manner filled up by the secretion of the pulp which retrogrades in the course of its absorption, and hence the tusks are solid, like the corresponding tusks in the female Narwhal, or at least present only a shallow cavity at their expanded and distorted base. lie found in one cranium of a male Dugong, in the upper jaw, the deciduous incisors or tusks co-existing with the permanent OHM In the skull of a male which had 3 —3 molars, the sockets of the deci duous incisors were obliterated, and the points of the permanent ones " It is obvious," says Professor Owen, " that the different form and condition of the tusks thus observed in the heads of Dugongs of the seine size and age, might be regarded as indicating a specific instead of a sexual differeuce. Dr. Knox inclines to the former opinion ; I have however adopted the latter view, not hastily or hypothetically, but as a result of the minute comparison of the forms and proportions of all the crania which have come under ray observation." If. Dugong is an inhabitant of the Indian Ocean.