They bring one, or at most two young at a time; feed on fea herbs and fish, alfo on fhells, which they dig out of the fand with their teeth; are faid alfo to make use of their teeth to afcend rocks or pieces of ice, fastening them to the cracks, and drawing their bodies up by that means. Besides mankind, they seem to have no other enemy than the white bear, with whom they have terrible combats, but are generally victorious. They are killed for the fake of the oil, one animal producing about half a ton. Seal-Of this genus there are feveral fpecies, all of which, there is no doubt, are found on fome part of the coast of America. Whale-tailed Manati.-This animal in nature so nearly approaches the cetaceous tribe, that it is merely in conformity to the systematic writers, that it is continued in this clafs; it fcarce deferves the name of a biped; what are called feet are little more than pectoral fins; they ferve only for fwimming; they are never used to affift the animal in walking or landing, for it never goes ashore, nor ever attempts to climb the rocks, like the walrus and feal. It brings forth in the water, and, like the whale, fuckles its young in that element; like the whale, it has no voice, and, like that animal, has an horizontal broad tail in form of a crefcent, without even the rudiments of hind feet. Inhabits the feas about Bering's and the other Aleutian islands, which intervene between Kamtfchatka and America, but never appears off Kamtfchatka, unless blown afhore by a tempeft. Is probably the fame fpecies which is found above Mindanao, but is certainly that which inhabits near Rodriguez, vulgarly called Diego Reys, an Mand on the east of Mauritius, or the ifle of France, Bear which it is likewife found. They live perpetually in the water, and frequent the edges of the fhores; and in calin weather fwim in great droves near the mouths of rivers; in the time of flood they come fo near the land, that a perfon may ftroke them with his hand; if hurt, they swim out to the fea, but prefently return again. They live in families, one near another; each consists of a male, a female, a half-grown young one, and a very small one. The females oblige young to swim before them, while the other old ones furround, and, as it were, guard them on all fides. If the female is attacked, the male will defend her to the utmost, and if she is killed, will follow J. VOL. IV. the 3 C her her corpfe to the very flore, and fwim for fome days near the place it has been landed at. They copulate in the fpring, in the fame manner as the human kind, especially in calm weather, towards the evening. The female fwims gently about; the male purfues, till, tired with wantoning, fhe flings herself on her back, and admits his embraces.* Steller thinks they go with young above a year; it is certain that they bring but one young at a time, which they fuckle by two teats placed between the breasts. They are vaftly voracious and gluttonous, and feed not only on the fuci that grow in the fea, but fuch as are flung on the edges of the flore. When they are filled, they fall afleep on their backs. During their meals, they are fo intent on their food, that any one may go among them and chufe which he likes best. Their back and their fides are generally above water, and as their fkin is filled with a fpecies of loufe peculiar to them, numbers of gulls are continually perching on their backs, and picking out the infects. They continue in the Kamtfchatkan and American feas the whole year; but in winter are very lean, fo that you may count their ribs, They are taken by harpoons faftened to a strong cord, and after they are struck, it requires the united force of thirty men to draw them on fhore. Sometimes, when they are transfixed, they will lay hold of the rocks with their paws, and stick so fast as to leave the fkin behind before they can be forced off. When a Manati is ftruck, its companions fwim to its affillance; fome will attempt to overturn the boat, by getting under it; others will press down the rope, in order to break it; and others will strike at the harpoon with their tails, with a view of getting it out, which they often fucceed in. They have not any voice, but make a noise by hard breathing, like the fnorting of a horfe. They are of an enormous fize; fome are twenty-eight feet long, and eight thoufand pounds in weight; but if the mindanao fpecies is the fame with this, it decreafes greatly in fize as it advances fouthward, for the largest which Dampier faw there, weighed only fix hundred pounds. The head, in proportion to the bulk of the ani * The leonine and urfine feals-copulate in the same manner, only, after sporting in the fea for fome time, they come on fhore for that purpose. :. mai, mal, is fmall, oblong, and almost square; the noftrils are filled with fhort briftles; the gape, or rictus, is fmall; the lips are double; near the junction of the two jaws the mouth is full of white tur bular briftles, which ferve the fame ufe as the larninæ in whales, to prevent the food running out with the water; the lips are alfo full of bristles, which ferve instead of teeth to cut the strong roots of the fea plants, which floating afhore are a fign of the vicinity of these animals. In the mouth are no teeth, only two flat white bones, one in each jaw, one above, another below, with undulated furfaces, which ferve instead of grinders. The eyes are extremely fmall, not larger than those of a sheep; the iris black; it is deftitute of ears, having only two orifices, so minute that a quill will fcarcely enter them; the tongue is pointed and fmall; the neck is thick, and its junction with the head fcarce distinguishable, and the last always hangs down. The cir cumference of the body near the shoulders is twelve feet, about the belly twenty, near the tail only four feet eight; the head thirtyone inches; the neck near feven feet; and from these measurements may be collected the deformity of this animal. Near the fhoulders are two feet, or rather fins, which are only two feet two inches long, and have neither fingers nor nails, beneath are concave, and covered with hard bristles; the tail is thick, strong, and hori zontal, ending in a stiff black fin, and like the fubftance of whalebone, and much split in the fore part, and flightly forked, but both ends are of equal lengths, like that of a whale. The skin is very thick, black, and full of inequalities, like the bark of oak, and fo hard as fcarcely to be cut with an ax, and has no hair on it; beneath the fkin is a thick blubber, which tastes like oil of almonds. The flesh is coarfer than beef, and will not foon putrefy. The young ones tafte like veal: the fkin is used for hoes, and for covering the fides of boats.. The Ruffians call this animal morskaia korowa, or fea cow; and kapustnik, or eater of herbs. Manati of Guiana.-The head of this animal hangs downward ; the feet are furnished with five toes; body almost to the tail of an uniform thicknefs; near its junction with that part grows fuddenly thin; tail flat, and in form of a fpatula, thickest in the middle, grow ing thinner towards the edges. Inhabits the rivers and fea of Guiana; it grows to the length of sixteen or eighteen feet; is covered with a dusky skin with a few 3 C2 1 hairs. hairs. Those measured by Dampier were ten or twelve feet long? their tail twenty inches in length, fourteen in breadth, four or five thick in the middle, two at the edges; the largest weighed twelve hundred pounds; but they arrive at far greater magnitude. Orenoko Manati-This is the species to which M. de Buffon has in his fupplement given the name of Le petit Lamantia de l'Amerique, and fays it is found in the Oronoko, Oyapoc, and the rivers of Ama zons. Father Gumilla had one taken in a distant lake, near the Orc noko, which was fo large that twenty-seven, men could not draw it out of the water; on cutting it open, he found two young ones, which weighed twenty-five pounds a-piece. We fufpect that the manati of the Amazons, &c. never vifit the fea, but are perpetually refident in the fresh waters. : These animals abound in certain parts of the eastern coafts and rivers of South-America, about the bay of Honduras, fome of the greater Antilles, the rivers of Oronoque, and the lakes formed by it; and lastly, in that of the Amazons, and the Guallaga, the Paftaça, and most of the others which fall into that vaft river: they are found even a thousand leagues from its mouth, and feem to be stopt from making even an higher advance, only by the great cataract, the Pongo of Borja,. They fometimes live in the fea, and often near the mouth of fome river, into which they come once or twice in twenty, four hours, for the fake of brouzing on the marine plants which grow within their reach; they altogether delight more in brackish or sweet water, than in the falt; and in fhallow water near low land, and in places fecure from furges, and where the tides run gently. It is faid that at times they frolic and leap to great heights out of the water. Their ufes were very confiderable to the privateers or buccaneers in the time of Dampier. Their flesh and fat are white, very sweet and falubrious, and the tail of a young female was particularly esteemed. A fuckling was held to be most delicious, and eaten roafted, as were great pieces cut out of the belly of the old animals. The fkin cut out of the belly, for that of the back was too thick, was in great request for the purpose of faftening to the fides of ca Hoes, and forming a place for the infertion of the pars. The thicker part of the skin, cut fresh into lengths of two or three feet, ferves for whips, and become, when dried, as tough as wood, Befides these, an animal has been difcovered on the coaft of America to which the name of Sea Ape has been given; but it ap pears pears to have been seen in only one folitary inftance, and therefore it appears unneceffary, except in a professed history of animals, to add any account of it. WINGED QUADRUPEDS. Bat.This fingular animal is distinguished from every other qua druped by being furnished with wings, and seems to possess a middle nature between four-footed animals and birds: it is allied to the one by the faculty of flying only, to the other both by its external and internal ftructure: in each refpect it has the appearance of an imperfect animal. In walking, its feet feem to be entangled with its wings, and it drags its body on the ground with extreme aukward. nefs. Its motions in the air do not seem to be performed with ease: it raifes itself from the ground with difficulty, and its flight is laboured and ill directed; from whence it is has very fignificantly been called the Flitter Moufe. There are feveral varieties of the bat kind, fe veral of which are found in different parts of the continent of Ame. rica. See Birds. HISTORY |
