. The illustrated natural history [microform]. Mammals; Natural history; Mammifères; Sciences naturelles. \it^. If 550 THE RYTINA. The skull of these animals is very singularly fornuHl, the upper jaw being bent downward over the lower jaw, and terminated by two large incisor teeth. It is supposed that the object of this structure is to assist the animal in gathri. ig together and dragging up by the roots the alga^ and other subaqueous vegetation on which it feeds. The skin of the Dugong is capalilc of being manufactured into various useful articles, and the llesli is in some repute, being said
. The illustrated natural history [microform]. Mammals; Natural history; Mammifères; Sciences naturelles. \it^. If 550 THE RYTINA. The skull of these animals is very singularly fornuHl, the upper jaw being bent downward over the lower jaw, and terminated by two large incisor teeth. It is supposed that the object of this structure is to assist the animal in gathri. ig together and dragging up by the roots the alga^ and other subaqueous vegetation on which it feeds. The skin of the Dugong is capalilc of being manufactured into various useful articles, and the llesli is in some repute, being said to l)ear close resemblance to veal. A THIRD genus of these herbivorous cetaceans is the Rytina, which is supposed to be now extinct, the last known specimen having Ijeen killed in 1768, only twenty-seven years after the creatures were discovered. The Ifytina no true teelh, and masticated its food by means of two bony plates, one of which was attached to the front of the palate, and the other to the lower jaw. It was a large animal, measuring about twenty-five feet in length, and nearly "twenty feet in circumference. The Pivtina was discovered in the year 1741 on an islani! in liehring's Straits ; and as the animals were huge, heavy, and unarmed, they wcro most valuable in allurding food to tlie unfoitunate sailors who were shipwrecked upon that island, and were forced to abide there for the space of ten months. When tlip islands Avei'e visited by ships in search of sea-otters, which abounded in that locality, the crews Ibund tlie JJytiiias to be so valuable and so easy a piey that the entire race was extirpated in a few years. Tlie only account of the Rytina is that which was furnished by Steller, one of the shipwrecked imrty, who, undaunted by the terrible privations which he was forced to undergo, wrote ail admirable description of the animal, which was published in St. Petersburg. I ? . 11. Please note that these images are extracted from scanne
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectmammals, booksubjectnaturalhistory
