Animal products; . ir chief habitat is the tropics. There theymay be found at all seasons of the year in almost incredible num-bers, coming in and going out with the tide, just like huge mobsof cattle at a mustering on a large cattle-station. Dugongs beingobliged to come to the surface to breathe, are rarely found in deepwater, but usually in from two to four fathoms, where grow thegrass and weed which are their sole food. In length they vary from six to fifteen feet, the average probablybeing about nine feet. The weight of an ordinary specimen willbe from four to six hundredweight, although w
Animal products; . ir chief habitat is the tropics. There theymay be found at all seasons of the year in almost incredible num-bers, coming in and going out with the tide, just like huge mobsof cattle at a mustering on a large cattle-station. Dugongs beingobliged to come to the surface to breathe, are rarely found in deepwater, but usually in from two to four fathoms, where grow thegrass and weed which are their sole food. In length they vary from six to fifteen feet, the average probablybeing about nine feet. The weight of an ordinary specimen willbe from four to six hundredweight, although we have heard ofindividuals weighing something like a ton, and producing no lessthan twenty gallons of purified oil. Directly behind their peculiarflippers are situated the mammae, or breasts, which are not of verylarge proportions. The young are born singly, and are known as THE DUGONGS. 375 a calves. When killed and opened, a dugong is about the sizeand appearance of a bullock, except that the skin is thicker, the. fat more like that of the pig, and that the tail part assumes theshape of that of a fish. 376 FLESH OF THE DUGONG. The skeleton of one forwarded to Europe from Australia someyears ago measured eleven feet in length. The flesh is excellent, tasting more like beef than fish. Gumillastates that the flesh of those of the Orinoco, when roasted, has theflavour of pork and the taste of veal, and when salted makes ex-cellent sea-store. The dugong is considered by the Malays as aroyal fish, and the king is entitled to all that are taken. The fleshis highly prized, and considered by them as superior to that of thebuffalo or cow. The dugong, or sea-hog, locally called Mooda Hoora, issometimes met with in shoals on the western coast of captured, the flesh of this cetacean sells there at half-a-crown for a small piece of less than a pound in weight. It isesteemed a great delicacy by the Mahometans, who naturally seeka compensation in this dish for the prohibition und
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