Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/359

 THE AMAZON DISTRICT. 319

one or two distinct species. Having carefully prepared a skin and skeleton of a fine male (which, with the rest of my collections, was lost on the voyage home), I did not describe it so minutely as I otherwise should have done, but have some notes, referring to male and female specimens, which I will now give : —

Manatus of the Amazon. Peixe boi, of the Portuguese. Vaca marina, of the Spaniards. Juaroua, of the Indians' Lingoa Geral.

The mammas of the female are two, one close to the base of each fm behind. The muzzle is blunt, fleshy, and covered with numerous stiff bristles ; the nostrils are on the upper part of it, and lunate. The lips, thick, fleshy, and bristly, and the tongue rough. The skin is lead-colour, with a few pinkish- white marblings on the belly ; others have the whole of the neck and fore-part of the body beneath cream-colour, and another spot of the same colour on the underside of the tail. The skin is entirely smooth, resembling india-rubber in appearance, and there are short hairs scattered over it, about an inch apart ; it is an inch thick on the back, and a quarter of an inch on the belly ; beneath it, is a layer of fat, of an inch or more in thickness, enveloping every part of the body, and furnishing from five to ten gallons of oil.

The total length of full-grown animals is seven feet. The intestines are very voluminous. The lungs are two feet long, and six or seven inches w r ide, very cellular, and when blown up, much resemble a Macintosh air-belt. The ribs are each nearly semicircular, arching back from the spine, so as to form a ridge or keel inside, and on the back there is a great depth of flesh. The bone is excessively hard and heavy, and can scarcely be broken. The dung resembles that of a horse.

The cow-fish feeds on grass on the margins of the rivers and lakes. It is captured either with the harpoon, or with strong nets, placed at the mouth of some lake, whence it comes at night to feed.

Though it has very small eyes, and minute pores for ears, its senses are very acute ; and the fishermen say there is no animal can hear, see, and smell better, or which requires greater skill and caution to capture. When caught, it is killed