Chapter III: Iii.--The Earless Seal Family (phocidæ) (3)

THE NARWHAL, OR SEA-UNICORN.[249]--Of all Whales this is the most unique on account of its so-called horn, or rather tusk, or, still better, enormously-developed canine tooth. Most museums contain examples of this extraordinary object, which seems like a solid rod of ivory, tapers from root to tip, has a kind of striated spiral surface, and is often from five to seven feet or more in length, thus being the longest tooth in the Mammalia. The adult animals vary from ten to sixteen feet long, and, like the Beluga, have a blunt short head, no dorsal fin, and very small flippers. It is essentially a northern form, inasmuch as it frequents the coasts of Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Siberia, though occasionally met with off Scandinavia and Britain, its favourite haunts, however, being 70° to 80° N. lat. It travels in great herds, and Dr. R. Brown avers that he saw thousands in their summer migrations following tusk to tusk and tail to tail like a regiment of cavalry, and swimming with perfect, regular, undulating movements. These herds are of both sexes. The Narwhals have grey backs, mottled with black, the sides and belly paling downwards to white, and equally spotted with grey or darker tint. The females are more spotted than the males, the young are darker, but some animals are much paler than others. The crescentic blowhole externally is single. Occasionally they utter a gurgling noise. In the stomachs of captured Narwhals, fish-bones, Crustaceans, Molluscs, and Cuttle-fish remains have been found. They swim with great velocity, and are most active creatures. They dash and sport about apparently with much glee, and Scoresby says that in their playful moments they parry horns as if fencing. He suggests that the horn may be used for spearing fish, as he found a large flat Skate in the stomach of one. Others imagine that it may be for stirring up food from the bottom; but it has been very deftly remarked that the female would thus fare badly, seeing she is destitute of the tooth in question. Fabricius’ view, that it was to keep the ice-holes open during the winter, has a touch of truth in it, inasmuch as one among other instances has been recorded where it usefully supplied such a purpose. Dr. R. Brown mentions that in 1860 a Greenlander observed in a hole in the ice hundreds of Narwhals and White Whales protruding their heads to breathe. It was likened to an Arctic Black Hole of Calcutta, so eager were the creatures pushing towards it. The natives gathered around, harpooned and shot the creatures by the dozen, though many were lost, such was the scramble. The Narwhal possesses only two teeth: the greatly-developed or left canine, and within the jaw on the right side the rudiment of a similar tooth which seldom is protruded; although in certain rare cases, instead of one, the two tusks are developed. Along the jaw or gum there is a scolloped appearance foreshadowing as it were teeth. In the palace of Rosenberg, Dr. R. Brown states, there is a throne manufactured of Narwhal ivory, and Captain Scoresby had a bedstead made of the same substance. A Greenlander’s dainty is Narwhal skin boiled to a jelly, this dish of _mattak_ being a _bonne bouche_ offered to strangers. The oil is very superior, the flesh extremely palatable. Though so peculiar in appearance and dentition, this veritable unicorn in all other structural peculiarities is truly a Dolphin.

THE WHALEBONE WHALES (MYSTICETE).

These are distinguished from the Toothed Whales by their great upper jaws being provided with baleen plates instead of teeth; in early life, however, rudimentary teeth occasionally are present, but these never project beyond the gums. Their skulls are symmetrical and not distorted as in the Denticete. The organ of smell is distinctly developed, and there is a double aperture to the blowhole. The separate bones in the lower jaw arch widely outwards. The upper jaws are relatively narrow and project forward at the same time with a great fore and aft arch, but are encompassed by the lower jaw arches. The head is proportionally of immense size, and admits of an extraordinarily capacious mouth. The palate is but a narrow median line, and the huge mouth little else than an enormous dome of whalebone plates whose inner lower margins are frayed. Thus while the whalebone is longer than the depth of the closed mouth, it nevertheless is accommodated by being tucked in below at its flexible extremities. A great broad massive tongue fills the interspace between the lower jaws. From this peculiar mouth-formation, the bony area of and around the brain-pan is relatively small.

_Br_, brain cavity; _J_, _J*_, upper and lower jaw-bones, _bo_,
_bo_, being roughened parts of bone sawn through; arrows indicate
narial passages, which open at _s_, spout-hole; _w_, whalebone;
_t_, tongue in dotted outline; _n_, nerve aperture lower jaw.]

Most people have seen a large plate of whalebone, dark-tinted or occasionally lighter, and one extremity ending in a fringe of bristle-like hairs. The whalebone blade of dense horny-like material is in the early stage composed of a brush of hair-like bodies, which, lengthening, solidify and assume the hard horny appearance afterwards known in the blade. The gum of the upper jaws has a series of these plates, the one in front of the other, which elongate as growth proceeds, but leave the free extremity with a fringe of separate hairs. Again, the blade towards the gum is embedded in a fleshy substance similar to the roots of our finger-nails. It grows continuously from the roots, like the latter, and in many respects corresponds, save that the free end is always fringed. Baleen, therefore, though varying from a few inches to a number of feet long, in fact approximates to a series of so to say mouth nail-plates, which laminæ have a somewhat transverse position to the cavity of the mouth, and thus their inner split edges and lower free ends cause the mouth to appear as a great hairy archway, shallower in front and deeper behind. The animal in opening its mouth gulps a quantity of water containing its minute marine food, and then closing the mouth the liquid escapes and the small mollusca, &c., are entangled in the hairy meshes. Some of the Whalebone Whales are distinguished as smooth-skinned and as wanting dorsal fins--the family Balænidæ, or Right Whales. Others have either a hump-like protuberance or dorsal fin or a series of longitudinal skin-plaits on the throat--the Balænopteridæ, or Humpbacks, and Rorquals.

THE GREENLAND, OR RIGHT WHALE.[250]--Among the Cetacea this, _par excellence_, may be denominated _the_ Whale, for much of the popular knowledge, interest, and commercial value of the group has centred in this animal. It is the well-known form followed by the Greenland whalers into the Arctic seas. The stories of its hunting and authenticated accounts of its vast size, &c., associate it in many minds as the most typical of the Whale tribe. But the truth is, it is unusual in many respects, and not even quite representative of the group of Whalebone Whales as a whole. Moreover, it is as well at first to take notice of the fact that of the genus _Balæna_, that to which the term Greenland or Right Whale is applicable is not the only species. For a long time it was believed that this Whale inhabited a very large area of the oceans. Later data, however, go to show that at least five species have existed or still exist, each restricted within a moderately defined area. _B. mysticetus_ reaches from the Gulf of St. Lawrence up Baffin’s Bay and Smith’s Sound, and westwards by Barrow Strait, &c., to the extremity of the North American continent, and descends to Behring Strait, Kamstchatka, and the Sea of Okhotsk. It moreover passes along the Arctic Ocean from Behring Strait to Spitzbergen and the east of Greenland, that is, it has a circum-polar area, in the two points already named descending to lower latitudes.

(_Modified partly after Eschricht, Owen, Turner, and Prichard._)

A, back of skull of Right Whale, looking into mouth, with
_w_, whalebone, _m_ being maxillary bone of palate, J,
lower jaw-bones; B, arch of baleen plates, as seen in
cross section of mouth; C, vertical section through gum,
palatal, or intermediate substance (_is_) with (_b_) three baleen
plates springing therefrom; D, whalebone in cross section
under the microscope and showing hair-like structure.]

THE BISCAY WHALE (_B. biscayensis_) differs in a proportionally smaller head; shorter, thicker, and more brittle baleen; smoother, thicker skin; and slightly bluish shade of colour. From the eighth to the tenth century the Basque people established a Whale fishery right in the middle of the Atlantic, and even to the beginning of the last century it was known that the same kind of animal was pursued across the Atlantic as far as Florida, and beyond Great Britain towards Iceland. But these hardy seamen followed the Whale with such vigour as to diminish, and, as was believed, drive it within the Arctic circle, an assumption which has disappeared before the knowledge that it differs from the so-called Greenland Whale. Almost between the same parallels in the Pacific Ocean from the American to the Asiatic shores is another--the JAPAN WHALE (_B. japonica_)--pursued by English, American, and Japanese whalers. This black animal, with a white eye-spot and paler on the chin and belly, has slenderer but equally long baleen, and in certain osteological features is regarded as specifically distinct. Another Whale, the CAPE WHALE (_B. australis_), ranges from the Cape region across the South Atlantic to the coast of South America below Brazil. While a fifth, the SOUTH PACIFIC WHALE (_B. antipodarum_), occupies a strip from the South American coast to New Zealand and Australia. The two latter have points in common with the others, and are only distinguished as separate species by supposed structural variations.

The habits of all these animals are exceedingly alike, and only in the first two is there very decided distinction in appearance. Such being the case, we may refer in detail to the Greenland Whale, Bowhead, or great Polar Whale of the Americans. This creature ordinarily attains a length of fifty or sixty or not more than seventy feet. The females are said to be larger and fatter than the males, to produce one or rarely two young ones in the spring, which are suckled for a twelvemonth, and they exhibit a constancy and affection for this offspring not surpassed by any other of the tribe. The bulky body is largest about the middle, tapering rather suddenly towards the tail, the flukes of which are occasionally over twenty feet from tip to tip. The flipper is short and broadish; while the head is a third of the length of the animal. The small eye is placed very low, but nevertheless above the angle of the great arched-mouth. The head is surrounded by a large swelling, at which point the double orifice of the blowhole forms an obtuse angle. The adult is almost black, the young bluish-grey, the lower parts of the throat cream-colour, and occasionally dispersed whitish markings on the body. Gregarious in habit, they go in twos and threes, but sometimes in greater numbers, even in large flocks; but the herds now are indeed rare. Among the most remarkable peculiarities in this Whale are the nature of its food and its mode of feeding. In the high latitudes there floats in immense quantities a small soft-bodied Mollusc (_Clio borealis_), an inch long, with expansions like wings; and besides it there are numerous small Crustaceans and Jelly-fish of various kinds. These, curiously enough, feed on infinitesimally minute Jelly-specks, _Diatomaceæ_, &c. These latter thus form subsistence to the former, which in their turn are the Whale’s food; so that, as Dr. Robert Brown has remarked, this enormous marine monster in a secondary manner is sustained by incredible numbers of organisms of which 1,000 or more might be laid on a shilling piece. Captain David Gray, a well-known successful whaler, has given a good account of the mode of feeding. When the animal opens its mouth to feed, the whalebone springs forwards and downwards so as to fill the mouth entirely. When in the act of shutting it again, the whalebone being pointed slightly towards the throat, the lower jaw catches it and carries it up into the hollow of the mouth. They choose a space between two pieces of ice, and swimming backwards and forwards secure the food near the surface. They will continue feeding in this way for hours, afterwards disappearing under the ice to sleep, and again suddenly reappearing as hunger compels them. When the food is submerged ten or fifteen fathoms, after feeding the Whale comes to the surface to breathe, and swallows its mouthful. It then lies still a minute, raises its head partially out of the water, again diving, throwing its tail in the air as it disappears. At such times the whalers successfully harpoon them. Occasionally they are easily captured, but more often are approached with great danger. The periods of surface-breathing and descents in the Right Whale are very different and irregular compared with those of the Sperm Whale. At intervals of from five to fifteen or twenty minutes they rise to breathe, and remain on the surface for about two minutes. Their ordinary rate of travelling is nearly four miles an hour, but if alarmed or wounded their pace is considerably increased. Like the other Whales, they travel head to the wind. They appear to have periods of migration. In May they are found off West Greenland; at the end of June they cross Baffin’s Bay, towards Lancaster Sound and Eclipse Bay, whence in August and September they strike south, and in November or later reach Hudson Strait and the coast of Labrador. It is supposed that the young are produced in these lower latitudes, and in spring the Whales are believed to proceed again northwards. This ordinarily quiet, harmless, but unwieldy creature, whose time seems to be divided between feeding and sleeping, occasionally disports itself in fun and frolic, like its more elegant but smaller congeners. It will then throw itself clean out of the water, “lobtail,” “breach,” and so on.

The whaling ships, which are now most powerfully built screw-propellers, leave Britain in the beginning of May for the Greenland seas, and endeavour to come across the track of their prey in the Baffin’s Bay districts. The men in the crow’s-nest have a weary and cold outlook, and as opportunity offers chase is given in the whaleboat in these dreary regions under circumstances well calculated to test the bravest spirit. The vessels often hover on the edges of the ice, or ram and bore their way through it, and when Whales are announced they are assailed by the boats’ crews with harpoons, lance, and at times harpoon-guns. These Whales when struck will occasionally run out more than a mile of cable, but return to breathe at no great distance, when the lance is used, and the extraordinary loss of blood weakens the monster and lays him at the mercy of his pursuers. Whales that have once been attacked and got free become very cunning, and instead of diving direct go straight along the surface, dragging boats and even ships into most dangerous positions, or cutting the ropes as they seek shelter under the ice. The American whalers on the Okhotsk Sea vary their mode of pursuit according to the district, often landing and even making night whaling expeditions, being guided by the phosphorescence accompanying the creatures’ movements. An ordinary-sized Whale, between forty and fifty feet, will yield, according to Scammon, from sixty to eighty barrels of oil, and 1,000 lbs. of baleen. The usual manner is for the Whale to be brought along the port side of the vessel, its tail forwards, belly up, and head aft. Tackled at each extremity, the men with spiked boots commence to strip the blubber, which is hoisted on deck. When the belly and right side with flipper are disposed of, the carcass is canted and the other side is similarly treated. The material is hastily put aside until the first quiet opportunity admits of it being cut in pieces and finally stowed in the holds, where it is kept in perfect safety until the return of the vessel. The skin and waste pieces of flesh or “kreng” are thrown away, and as the carcass and such useless matter are abandoned, they are quickly seized by the Killer Whales, Threshers, and Greenland Sharks, and by enormous numbers of sea-fowl that hover in the wake of the whaler.

THE HUMP-BACKED WHALES.[251]--Of this genus three, four, or even more species are named by naturalists. The Long-finned (_M. longimana_), or _Kepokak_ of the Greenlanders, inhabits the North Atlantic area as far as Davis Strait. A southern form, the Cape Hump-back (_M. Lalandii_), is distributed over the South Atlantic, also towards both continents. There is a South Pacific form (_M. novæ zelandiæ_), the New Zealand Hump-back, stretching to the American coast, and still another, the Japanese Hump-back (_M. kuzira_), which ranges to the Aleutian and Californian coasts. These Whales are by no means as valuable for oil or baleen as the Right Whale, and are not very frequently hunted. An adult averages fifty feet in length. The skin of the throat and belly is plaited longitudinally like corrugated iron with narrow furrows. The flippers are very long, one-third or one-fourth the length of the animal, their edges often undulating. The characteristic feature or hump, is a low dorsal fin, situate behind the middle of the body. They have a bulky, stoutish body, and a broad flat head, and the neck vertebræ are usually separate. They are black, occasionally paler below, and some have white flippers, but the baleen is black. Dr. Rink says that when struck with harpoon, the Kepokak rushes along the surface without diving. They rest lazily near the surface, beating their flippers as if scratching themselves. The Greenlanders steal up to them when asleep, and stab them with lances. All the species, at times, seem to delight in endless springing and dashing out of the water. They will yield from twenty to thirty barrels of oil, and a few hundredweight of an inferior quality of whalebone. The Hump-back of the Pacific, according to Scammon, proceeds north in summer, and returns southwards on the approach of winter; but they have been observed with young following them at various times and seasons.

Considerable interest is attached to another Cetacean of the North Pacific, which Capt. Scammon names the California Grey Whale.[252] The female of this animal is from forty to forty-four, and the male seldom more than thirty-five feet in length. In shape it may be said to be somewhat intermediate between the Right Whale, the Hump-backs, and the Rorquals, though in most respects nearest the last two. It has no back fin or hump, but instead a series of cross ridges on the hinder part of the back towards the tail. Occasionally individuals are nearly black, but the more common and characteristic colour is a mottled-grey or speckled patches of white on all the upper parts, underneath being darkest in body-tint. The flippers are fully six feet long, broad in the middle, but taper to a point. The head arches downwards from the blowhole forwards, and the baleen is remarkably short, brownish-white, and coarse in texture. From November till May this Whale frequents the Californian coast, and then the females enter the shallow bays and lagoons, and give birth to their young, while the males keep seawards. During the summer months they all journey northwards along the coast, and congregate amidst the ice in the Arctic Ocean and the Okhotsk Sea. So regular are their migrations, and so close in-shore do they swim, that Eskimo and Indians alike keep watch at the proper season, and as they pass successfully attack them in their canoes. The flukes, lips, and fins form native dainties, the oil is bartered for reindeer, a sauce is made of the entrails, and the Eskimo dogs feast on the flesh. Since 1851 a system of coast and bay whaling has been profitably pursued by the Americans along the Californian shores. At first 1,000 Whales would daily pass the outlook stations, though not a tenth part are now seen, so great has been the havoc and so shy of the land and whale-boats have the Californian Greys become. In calm weather these Whales will lie motionless for an hour or so on the surface of the water, but they nevertheless seem to delight in dashing and splashing among the surf and breakers. At other times they huddle together in shoal water, almost getting aground, while their young swim freely about in sportive play. The dam’s attachment to her offspring is very great, and hence lagoon whaling is most dangerous. Casualties are of constant occurrence in these narrow passages, the old Whale in her frenzy dashing her head against the boats, and lashing all around with her tail-flukes; hence the sailors call them “Devil-fish,” and “Hard-head,” while “Mussel-digger” is applied to them from their habit of probing among the mud. They often roam among the seaweed-banks, where the whaler shoots them with the harpoon-gun, as he lies in wait in a small boat or sailing craft. Thus this piebald Whale runs every chance of early extinction, seeing that whether in warm or cold latitudes, it is relentlessly pursued by its dire enemy--man.

THE FIN-WHALES, OR RORQUALS,[253] as a group, vary exceedingly in size. Although at times of great dimensions, they are not so bulky in form and unwieldy as the foregoing whalebone groups. Their elongate bodies, smaller-mouthed heads, shorter baleen, plaited throats, and relatively narrow and small flippers, with a dorsal fin behind the middle of the back, high laterally-compressed tail-root, and separate neck-bones, besides other osteological characters, distinguish them sharply from the preceding. The amount of blubber and baleen in these Whales being exceedingly limited, coupled with their great muscular activity, restless disposition, difficulty and danger of approach, causes them to be seldom hunted. Their capture in fact is not remunerative. As a consequence, their numbers in some districts are considerable though scattered; even off British coasts certain species create great havoc in the herring and other fisheries. There may exist from eight to a dozen fairly-recognised species, and quite as many more doubtful ones. They have been divided into several genera by various naturalists, though there is a tendency to revert to the single term _Balænoptera_. So migratory are they, so active, and changeable towards localities, that little is known of their precise geographical distribution. They are found in the Polar seas, throughout the whole of the Atlantic, in the Indian, Pacific, and Antarctic Oceans. In their habits they have much in common. Ordinarily they do not congregate in large herds, though twos and threes, and occasionally more, keep company; others seem even more solitary in disposition. They are all more or less fish-eaters, and they commit great devastation among the Cod-bearing banks and Herring shoals--six and eight hundred fish having been found in the stomach of an individual. A few attain the enormous length of even 100 feet, and sixty or seventy feet is not an uncommon average, though some of the species are by no means distinguished on account of size. One of the largest forms is SIBBALD’S RORQUAL (_B. Sibbaldii_), black above and slate-grey below, varied with whitish spots. The Icelanders term this animal “Steypireythr,” and it is rather abundant in that region and South Greenland. Another of immense dimensions is known to the Pacific whalers as the SULPHUR-BOTTOM WHALE (_B._ (_Sibbaldius_) _sulfureus_). This glides with great velocity over the ocean, and is known at a distance by the vast amount of vapour it sends forth in blowing. Its yellowish belly gives its specific name. At times they appear in considerable numbers on the Californian coasts. One is recorded to have followed a ship for twenty-four consecutive days, and rifle-shots, &c., did not drive it away. The captain and crew at first had great fears of mischief, but at length the companionship of “Blowhard,” as they called him, and his close approach, became a subject of interest and merriment to them. The COMMON RORQUAL, or RAZOR-BACK (_B. musculus_), black above and brilliant white below, with an average length of sixty or seventy feet, is a well-known frequenter of British coasts. The LESSER RORQUAL (_B. rostrata_) resembles the last, but never reaches more than twenty-five or thirty feet. It frequents the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, and is supposed to stretch even as far as Labrador, Davis Strait, and the Aleutian Isles. It likewise has been met with several times in British waters, but it is best known as the “Seigval,” or Cod-Whale of Finland, and from the fact that it is a regular summer visitant to Norway.

A great many of the remains of Fossil Whales found in the Miocene and Pliocene deposits in various parts of Europe belong to the Fin-backs. One genus, the _Cetotherium_, Brandt has suggested, might form a transition between the Whales and our next order, the Sirenia. This supposition, however, is not borne out by facts, such features as denote likeness being rather deceptive. The Rhytina, a Sirenian, wanting teeth and with a somewhat Cetacean-like tail, however Whale-like in outward figure, in other respects is quite different from any member of the Order Cetacea, which taken as a whole cannot possibly be affirmed to show substantial links of close affinity either with the other Marine Mammalia or with the Land Mammalian groups.

JAMES MURIE.

ORDER SIRENIA (THE MANATEES).

Introductory Remarks--Mermaids--Position--General Characteristics of
the Order--STELLER’S RHYTINA--Habits--Extinct--DUGONG--Range--Habits
--Uses--Teeth--MANATEE--Distribution--Peculiar Mouth--Mode of
Feeding--Story of “Patcheley,” a tame Manatee--Halitherium and other
Fossil Forms.

This order of the Marine Mammalia comprises only a few animals, which, however, possess a peculiar interest to the zoologist. But two genera are now found alive, and a third genus was utterly extirpated about a century ago. Others are only known from fossil remains. Notwithstanding the ungainly, almost positively repulsive, appearance of the living forms, they yet have a hold on the popular imagination on account of their being the actual representatives of the famed Sirens and Mermaids of yore. The ancients, in their voyages to Eastern climes, gathered stories concerning the existence of strange creatures, half woman, half fish, chiefly frequenting the shores of Taprobane (Ceylon); and fancy, with oft-told but unchecked repetition of tales, soon lent a charm to the supposed beings, by conferring on these sea-nymphs imaginary flowing tresses, and sweet dulcet voices, by whose luring wiles the unwary mariner was entrapped, or led to destruction. Howsoever ridiculous such notions may now be regarded, they are, nevertheless, to be satisfactorily explained, for the singular Dugong, with its fish-like tail, roundish head, and mammæ on its breast, has the habit of occasionally raising half of its body perpendicularly out of the water and clasping its young to its breast. These actions have, doubtless, given a colourable pretext to all the fables of mermaids--those “missing links,” which even yet our children delight in, when narrated in “The Little Mermaid,” by the talented pen of a Hans Andersen.

The Manatee or Dugong group, partly from aquatic habitat and some outward resemblances, for long was classed among the Whales; by F. Cuvier they were termed the Grass-eating (“les Cétacés herbivores”) in contradistinction to the flesh-devouring Cete, or Whales proper. Early in this century Illiger signalised and defined them as a separate sub-order “Sirenia,” their organisation distinctly differing from that of the Whales; while De Blainville, later on, pressed their Elephant-like structures as entitling them to close proximity with these creatures--his “Gravigrades.”

_a_, Dotted outline of Lungs.]

Among the general characters of the Sirenia is a long, compact, cylindrical body (without back fin), narrowing towards the tail, which terminates either Whale-like, in forked flukes, or Beaver-like, in a great, flat, fibrous expansion, in either case set horizontally. The fore-limbs are encased, flat, and flipper-like, exceedingly flexible, and more completely formed than in Whales. The extinct and fossil Halitherium alone is known to have possessed rudiments of hind-limbs, though pelvic bones are present in all. Ears are wanting, and the eyes are very small, whilst two valvular nostrils are situate over a full prominent muzzle, which is provided with a copious supply of peculiar short bristles, while the inside angles of the mouth are hairy. Their dark skin is Elephant-like, tough, rough, sparsely hairy, or smoothish and Whale-like. The two mammæ are on the breast close to the armpits. One genus (Rhytina) was toothless, but the others had ample dentition. Moreover, in all the front of the upper and lower jaws is provided with curious, rough, horny pads or plates. The larynx differs from that of the Cetacea and resembles that of Land Mammals. The midriff, or diaphragm, is most unusually lengthened backwards. The apex of the heart is cleft, giving the appearance of a double organ, and the blood-vessels almost everywhere in the body and limbs split into _rete mirabile_. The stomach has two main digestive chambers, and to the first is added a pair of small divergent horn-shaped appendages, besides a remarkable finger-shaped gland. Unlike Whales or Elephants their small brain has few convolutions. All the bones are dense and heavy, and are the most solid among Mammals. Manatus is unique among the living Mammalia in having but six neck vertebræ, and, as in the other Sirenia, they are all separate. The ribs are uncommonly thick. The skull is relatively much smaller than in the Cetacea, is low set, somewhat elongated, and truncated at each extremity. The side bones (_parietals_) meet above, the occiput is small, the orbits well defined, and the nasal passages are directed forwards; the lower jaw has a high vertical limb (or ramus) behind, and in the Dugong the upper and lower jaw-bones are strangely bent down. The Sirenia are animals of slow habit, and are most inoffensive. They feed solely on aquatic vegetation. As being the most Whale-like in size and shape of tail, we shall first introduce to notice the Rhytina.

STELLER’S RHYTINA,[254] the Morskaia Korava of the Russians, and alone representative of the genus, is a creature now extinct, but which was living and in tolerable abundance a hundred and fifty years ago. When the Russian, Behring--after whom the Strait is named--first visited that region and the neighbourhood of Kamstchatka, there existed a huge animal, of which, under the name of Manatee, or Northern Sea Cow (_Vacca marina_), the naturalist Steller, who accompanied him, gave a classical account. It had a small oblong head, a full bristly snout, a dark-coloured body, protected by a rugged, gnarled, warty, hairless skin. The fore limbs were quite short and stumpy, hairy at their ends, and they had no finger-bones beyond the wrist. The tail was black, ending in a horizontal, stiff, half-moon-shaped, narrow fin-blade, fringed with a fibrous whalebone-like material. It had no teeth, but horny, almost bony plates, corresponding to the horny gum-pads of the Dugong and Manatee, served the purpose of mastication. According to Steller, it attained a length of from twenty to twenty-eight feet.

Though stupid, voiceless, animals, they were of a very affectionate disposition, and were readily tamed, even allowing themselves to be handled. Their conjugal affection was strikingly developed. A male, who in vain attempted to relieve his partner, stuck by her, in spite of repeated blows, and when she died he returned to the spot for some days, as if he expected to see her again. They were very voracious, and fed on seaweeds, with their heads under water; and every now and then they raised their noses to breathe, and made a snorting noise. They appeared in families, each consisting of a male, female, one half grown, and a cub born in autumn; and sometimes these families united into great herds. As they were very good eating (far preferable to salt junk), Steller recommended them as articles of diet to the sailors; and so faithfully was his advice observed by natives and seamen, that within twenty-seven years of his first visit the last Rhytina was killed, namely, in 1768. They were hunted with a boat-hook attached to a long rope, which, when the animal was struck, was passed to a company of men on shore, who, with considerable difficulty, managed to land the huge Sea Cow. This animal appears to have had an extremely limited range, having never been met with anywhere but in the small Behring Island, off the coast of Kamstchatka. Their sudden extinction is a most noteworthy fact, and but for Steller’s admirable account nothing whatsoever would have been known of the habits, internal structure, or outward appearance of this singular Sirenian. Though the adults were toothless, yet by some it is supposed from analogy that in early life functionless teeth may have existed, though these never appeared above the gums. The Rhytina, in its forked tail, somewhat down-bent jaws, and other points, resembled the Dugong; while in skull characters and skin it was like the Manatee; and though somewhat whale-shaped, it was a true Sirenian.

THE DUGONG,[255] typical of the genus Halicore, is a living form, ordinarily from ten to twelve feet long, though very old males are said occasionally to reach as much as eighteen to twenty feet. Its distribution is rather widespread, namely, from the Red Sea and East African coasts to the west coast of Australia; and they are even yet not unfrequently met with within these limits, on the coasts of Mauritius, Ceylon, and the Indian Archipelago, though in numbers fast becoming thinned. Outwardly they differ from the Rhytina in being smoother-skinned, and in having the fore-limbs longer, and the tail semi-lunar, but deeper or less fluked, and not marginally split. Their colour is slaty-brown or bluish-black above, and whitish below. The early traveller, Leguat, speaks of droves of several hundreds grazing like Sheep on the seaweeds a few fathoms deep in the clear waters of the Mascarene Islands. Usually this tropical animal frequents the shallow smooth waters of the bays, inlets, and river estuaries where marine vegetation (fucus and seaweeds) is in abundance, and there it leisurely feeds, being lethargic in disposition, but an immense eater. When they have not been much chased they are not shy or timid, and even allow the natives to handle them; on which occasions the admiring spectators generally manage to abstract the smaller and fatter cubs as dainties, for they are considered uncommon good food. So highly prized are they, that the Malay king considers it a royal “fish,” and he claims all taken in his dominions. The flesh of the young, when cooked in a variety of ways, is certainly wholesome--by some compared to veal, and by others to beef or pork--but the older animals are tougher. The Moreton Bay colonists call them “Sea Pig.” They yield a clear oil of the best quality, which is free from all objectionable smell, and it is strongly recommended as a remedial agent in lieu of cod-liver oil. Hence an Australian Dugong fishery has been established; but its equipped boats’ crews are fast sweeping off the once plentiful numbers. The stories of their being found ashore, browsing on land herbage, are not supported by fact; indeed, the inadequate strength of their fore-limbs, the absence of hind extremities, and their unwieldy bodies, prevent them from travelling on land. This is borne out by the statements of the natives of Sumatra to Sir Stamford Raffles, as well as other travellers. The Red Sea Arabs told Dr. Rüppell that they had feeble voices, a fact that other Australian observers have corroborated, although the roaring of Seals has been mistaken for them. In the spring months the males do battle for partners, and the young are born towards the end of the year. Like the Rhytina, the Dugong shows intense maternal affection, for if the young be taken, the mother suffers herself to be speared in following her offspring. In its strange bristly-clad muzzle the Dugong resembles its congeners, but its skull and dentition are singular. Thus, the fore or premaxillary region of the upper jaw is elongated, sharply crooked downwards, and overlaps the very deep lower jaw, which is similarly down-bent. The two opposed surfaces bear the horny tuberculated plates which rub and grind the vegetable food. The dental formula ordinarily is--Incisors, (1-1)/(0-0); canines, (0-0)/(0-0); molars, (3-3)/(3-3) = 14. The pair of incisor tusks are lodged in the down-bent upper jaw, and protrude in the male, but in the female they are diminutive, and retained within the bone. Behind them there is a considerable space devoid of canine, and then come three slightly laterally compressed ovoid molars without enamel. The molars, however, may occasionally be five in number, the fore ones dropping out, and others behind taking their places, but not succeeding vertically. In some instances the males have an additional lateral small incisor. Thus as many as twenty-four teeth may be developed, but these are never in use at one and the same time. This peculiar dentition, and the successive displacement of the anterior molars, foreshadows what is regularly found in the Elephants and Mastodons.

The MANATEE, or _Lamantin_ of the French, inhabits the African and American Continents. In Africa it ranges along the west coast, and ascends the Senegal, Niger, Congo, and other rivers, where it not only frequents the lagoons, but even has been captured in Lake Tchad. This animal is known as _M. senegalensis_. In America two forms are supposed to exist--one, the _M. latirostris_, of Florida, is said to have closer resemblance to the African form than to its fellow-countryman; the other, _M. americanus_, is found in Surinam, Guiana, Jamaica, the Amazon and its tributaries, and, indeed, in the various rivers, bays, and inlets of the tropical American coast. These creatures, like the foregoing, browse upon the aquatic vegetation of the shallow lagoons and river banks, apparently, however, having a preference for fresh-water plants. Their habits and mode of feeding are, in a measure, similar to those of the Dugong and the Rhytina. The full-grown Manatee is from ten to twelve feet in length. Its long body terminates in a thin, wide, shovel-shaped, fibrous, horizontal tail, proportionally broader, but resembling somewhat that of the Beaver. The fore-limbs, or flippers, have diminutive flat nails. The skin of the body can be compared only to that of the Elephant, not in colour alone, but also in its coarse, wrinkly texture, and widely-scattered, delicate, but long hairs. Its deep-set, minute eye is surrounded by skin wrinkles. As in the preceding genera, the muzzle is peculiar--a kind of half-moon-shaped swelling above, with deep crossing wrinkles set with short stiff bristles. Beneath this there projects a mass of hard gum, covered with a roughened horny plate. The lower jaw also has a gum plate, underhung by a bristle-clad lower lip. The nostrils are two semi-lunar, valve-like slits, at the apex of the muzzle. When the mouth is opened, the marginal inner cheeks are seen to be hair-covered, and the hard, horny palate to be very conspicuous above and below. This remarkable muzzle and mouth are specially adapted to the animal’s mode of feeding. Steller long ago remarked that the Rhytina’s muzzle was exceedingly prehensile; but in a live Manatee exhibited at the London Zoological Gardens, Professor Garrod observed and has recorded the remarkable manner and use of this lip-structure. In grasping its food, the bristly-clad outer angles of the upper lip at first diverge, and then approximate like a pair of pincers, holding the object firmly, which is then drawn inwards by a backward movement of the lips. The horny pads again on the closing of the mouth further bruise the vegetable matter. In 1866, the Zoological Society sent Mr. Clarence Bartlett to Surinam, to bring home a young Manatee. This suckling, christened “Patcheley,” had been obtained when quite a baby by the Indians, and duly transferred to a lakelet, where he had his freedom. Although fishy in form and fondness for the water, he had nevertheless to receive daily a good _quantum_ of Cow’s milk from a bottle. He soon got fond of the “black Jack,” as well as of his keeper. Mr. Bartlett, as wet nurse, had a difficulty in training his charge. Loosely attired, he waded about and coaxed his pet to the water’s edge, where, after a stolen suck or two, he permitted himself to be raised partly on his knees, and then sucked away might and main till the bottle was dry. His appetite satisfied, he seemed in high glee, tumbled and rolled about a while, then got quieter, retired to the pool, and slept lazily near the surface. At times his disposition was more rollicking, and Master Patcheley would overturn his nurse into the mud, where the two spluttered and floundered for possession of the bottle. Clusius recounts how a pet “Mato” was kept by a Spanish Governor for twenty-six years; it came at call to the side of the lake to be fed, and would even allow boys to mount on its back while it harmlessly swam about. For long the pursuit of the Manatee has been a favourite amusement with the natives. One instance is related of Indians on the Mosquito shore spearing it from canoes, when the animal darted off as he felt the weapon, dragging the canoe after it round and round the bight until exhausted. Mr. Alfred R. Wallace says the natives of the Amazon capture them alive, in strong nets, at the mouth of the streams, and afterwards kill them by thrusting wooden plugs up their nostrils. The Manatee has no milk-teeth, though when young there are two rudimentary incisors in each jaw, which afterwards become covered in. Canines are entirely absent, and the molars vary in number from nine to eleven in the upper and lower jaw on each side. Those in the upper series are three-rooted, in the lower series two-rooted; all the molars are broad, square-crowned, and with transverse ridging or cusp structure like that of the Hippopotamus or partly like that of Mastodon. The molar series are never simultaneously in place and use, those in front dropping out and making room for those behind.

FOSSIL SIRENIA.--The HALITHERIUM is the name given to certain fossil remains which have been found in the Miocene strata of Germany and various other parts of Europe. These remains show that there may have been several species, but all are truly of a Sirenian character. The fossil remains were intermediate, though possibly most closely allied to the Manatee, some of them being slightly larger than this animal. The dentition is unusually interesting, inasmuch as there appear to have been vertical successors; anteriorly there are simple, cylindrical premolars, and posteriorly larger, complex molars, while the somewhat bent-down upper jaw bore tusk-like appendages. But the most peculiar and interesting point in connection with the Halitheria, is that they were provided with rudiments of a hind limb, a thigh-bone some few inches in length having been found by the late Professor Kaup, though curiously enough no further vestige of it has since turned up. Judging from the almost complete skeletons obtained, and from comparison with what we know of other Sirenia, the Halitherium must have closely resembled the living Manatee, and possibly have lived in the lagoons and brackish waters of mid-Europe and elsewhere, for in the Eocene and Miocene times these regions, now high and dry, formed watery areas in communication with the ocean.

Besides the foregoing, within the last few years our knowledge of Sirenoids has been considerably augmented by the discovery of other fossil remains indicating several new genera. _Prorastomus_ is founded by Owen on a skull from West Indian (doubtful) Tertiary strata. _Crassitherium_ is applied by Van Beneden to vertebræ, and part of a skull from deposits near Antwerp. _Felsinotherium_, (with but (5-5)/(5-5) molar teeth) is a form described by Capellini, from Pliocene beds in Bologna. _Pachyacanthus_, found in strata in the neighbourhood of Vienna, Brandt supposed a Cetacean, but Van Beneden regards it as a Sirenian. The _Rhytiodus_, of Lartet, is based on some fossil teeth bearing resemblances to those of the Dugong. Lastly comes (in the cast of a brain), the still more remarkable _Eotherium_ of Owen, from the nummulitic Eocene of Egypt. Some of these fossils are of intense interest, for example, _Prorastomus_, the Tapir-like dentition of which is--Incisors, (3-3)/(3-3); canines, (1-1)/(1-1); premolars, (5-5)/(5-5); molars, (3-3)/(3-3) = 48. Very interesting also are _Pachyacanthus_, with possibly but six neck vertebræ, like the Manatee; and _Halitherium_, with its hind limb bones, and which also, along with _Felsinotherium_, foreshadows the molar pattern of Hippopotamus. Thus, taking these facts into consideration, together with many other structural peculiarities, Elephant-like and otherwise, and notwithstanding that the Sirenia are aquatic and Whale-like, their structural relationship with the Proboscidea and Ungulata is not so far-fetched as at first sight might seem. But the gap is not yet bridged, and until that is done the order Sirenia must be retained.

JAMES MURIE.

ORDER PROBOSCIDEA (ELEPHANTS).

Order Proboscidea--Antiquity of the Elephant--Referred
to in the Bible--Mentioned in the Apocrypha--War
Elephants--Their Accoutrements--Hannibal’s Elephants--Elephants
amongst the Romans--Skull--Dentition--Vertebræ--Odd
Delusion about its Legs--Proboscis--Species--THE INDIAN
ELEPHANT--Size--Range--Habits--Various Modes of Capture--Keddah--Used
as a Labourer or Nurse--Sagacity--White Elephants--THE
AFRICAN ELEPHANT--Characteristics--Range--Habits and
Haunts--Hunting--Pitfalls--Aggageers Chasing--Elephant-Shooting--How
the Natives Cut it up--FOSSIL ELEPHANTS AND THEIR ALLIES--Absurd
Stories--MAMMOTH--How it was first Found--Story of the Fourth or
Benkendorf’s Discovery--Range--MASTODON--DINOTHERIUM.

The Elephants, Horses, Rhinoceroses, Tapirs, Coneys, Pigs, and Hippopotami, were all grouped together by the older naturalists under the order of Pachyderms,[256] or thick-skinned animals provided with hoofs, but not furnished with a complex stomach for rumination, or chewing of the cud. They are now divided into three different orders--the Proboscidea, Hyracoidea, and Ungulata--which we shall define and describe each in its proper place.

The order Proboscidea, or animals possessed of a proboscis, or trunk, consists of two living species, the Indian and African Elephant, and two extinct genera known as Dinotherium and Mastodon. The Elephant, from its large size and its singular sagacity, attracted the attention of man in the earliest times, and was always looked upon with feelings of awe and reverence. At the present time the African savage, in the region of the Congo, compasses its death with the mysterious aid of the medicine-man, according to Mr. Winwood Reade, as well as by the ordinary means of hunting. The animal, in early times, was used both for purposes of war and peace, and figures, at the present time, alike in the gorgeous retinues of Indian princes, and ministers to the more humble and more useful services of the husbandman. The ivory furnished by its tusks was known in the remotest antiquity. The first undoubted mention of the Elephant in the Bible relates to the use of ivory, which certainly was employed by the ancient Greeks, Assyrians, and Egyptians early in their history.

King Solomon had a throne of ivory, which was obtained through the Phœnician traders probably from Africa. “For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish (Cilicia) with the navy of Hiram; once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks” (1 Kings x. 22). Elephants are also mentioned in 2 Chron. ix. 21; and at considerable length in the first and second books of Maccabees, where their use in war is described (1 Macc. vi. 28-30; 43-46).

The Elephants were used in war also by the Indian nations, and were looked upon as most formidable engines in battle. By the aid of these huge creatures, to a large extent, they conquered and held possession of the region of Central Asia west of the Indus.

It appears that the relative force of Elephants in a great army corps was one to each chariot of war, with three horsemen and five archers, the latter being perched on the Elephant’s back within a houdah of a defensible nature, denominated a castle, the whole forming what was termed a patti, or squad, comprising altogether not more than eleven men, with the drivers or attendants. This shows that in India, which furnished Elephants and the manner of arming them, only four or five archers, with or without the mahout, or driver, were told off to each animal; consequently, when the successors of Alexander introduced them in their wars in Syria, Greece, and Italy, they were not encumbered with more than one or two additional persons before a charge. Indeed, considerable trouble appears to have been taken that a war Elephant should not be nearly as heavily laden as one simply used for carrying burdens; therefore the number of thirty-two soldiers given in Maccabees as seated upon each Elephant must somehow or other be a mistake. These Elephants were well trained, and taught to hold out one of their hind legs horizontally, when it was necessary to mount them in a hurry. They appeared to take considerable delight and satisfaction in the gaudy trappings with which they were usually decorated. In some cases, Elephants have proved more dangerous to the army in whose ranks they were serving than to the enemy, by being suddenly confronted with objects previously unobserved. On such occasions they turn in haste, and spread terror and death into their own ranks. Careful, judicious, and long-continued training was the only remedy against these sudden surprises.

African Elephants probably were never so well trained and subdued as the Indian; nevertheless, they were used by the Carthaginians in the first Punic War (264-241 B.C.) with much success, and to the discomfiture of the Romans. In the second Punic War (218-216 B.C.) Hannibal performed the most astounding and remarkable feats of crossing the Pyrenees, making his way through Gaul, crossing the Alps with thirty-seven Elephants, and defeating the Romans at the Ticinus. Most of the Elephants, however, died shortly afterwards from the excessive coldness of the weather and the fatigue they had undergone. Various accounts are given in Roman history regarding the manner in which the Elephants crossed the Rhone. One story goes that they were assembled together on the bank, and the fiercest of them being provoked by his keeper, pursued him as he swam across the water, to which he had run for refuge, and that the rest of the herd followed. There is, however, more reason to believe that they were conveyed across on rafts. It is said that one raft two hundred feet long and fifty broad was extended from the bank to the river, and was then secured higher up by several strong cables to the bank, that it might not be carried down by the stream. The soldiers then covered it over with earth, so that the animals might tread upon it without fear, as on solid ground. Another raft one hundred feet long, and of the same breadth as the other, was joined to this first. The Elephants were driven along the stationary raft as along a road, and then, the females leading the way, passed on to the other raft, which was fastened to it by lashings. This, on being cut, was drawn by boats to the opposite shore. The Elephants gave no signs whatever of alarm, while they were driven along as it were on a continuous bridge; but a few became infuriated when the raft was let loose, and fell into the river, finding their way, however, safely to the shore.

The trappings and armour of a war Elephant have been described by the author of the “Ayeen Akbery” as follows:--“Five plates of iron, each one cubit long and four fingers broad, are joined together by rings, and fastened round the ears of the Elephant by four chains, each an ell in length; and betwixt these another chain passes over the head, and is secured beneath; and across it are four iron spikes, with ratasses and iron knobs. There are other chains with iron spikes and knobs, hung under the throat and over the breasts, and others fastened to the trunk; these are for ornament and to frighten Horses. Pakher is a kind of steel armour that covers the body of the Elephant; there are other pieces of it for the head and proboscis.”

_s_, Air Sinuses; _n_, Nostrils; _b_, Brain; _m_, Molar; _t_, Tusk.]