The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1894-03-02
THE MOTHER OF MERMAlps.
To the Scientific World She Is Know
Merely rs the Duron0

TIE MI TEN Of mGhMAlDS,
To the Scientific World She Is Known
Merely as the DuGong.
To the scientific world the mermaid is
known as the dugong, and, while she is
more or less interesting to the naturalist
as being the inoffensive cause of the mer-
maid myths, she is still more interesting
to him because she is a dugong, for the
dugong has been battling for existence in
the marine world for centuries and is about
to lose her identity among her aquatic
ueighbors of the southern deep. The du-
gong is becoming rapidly extinct. A speci.
men is seldom captured, and the one in
possession of the San Francisco Academy
of Sciences is regarded as an extraordinary
prize
Every nation under the sun has contrib
uted to the mythical evolution of the du-
gong from a member of the manatee fami-
ly of mammaiia to a beautiful sea siren
with languorous eyes and flowing hair,
who wooes foolish mariners to destruction,
and the folklore of every nation has dill
ferent idea of the appearance of the mer-
maid. The crafty Chinese and Japanese
have even manufactured hideOus sem.
blance to a woman fish, and great paint
ers have deigned to commit to canvas their
conception of the siren. The unattractive,
motherly dugong was the cause of it all
The dugong forms the connecting link
between the real whale and the seals and
walruses. Like the whale, the animal has
no hind feet, but powerful horizontal
tail. Its anterior eXtremities are more
deXibly jointed than those of the whale,
and this is distinguishing characteristic
between the two animals. The dugonR is
said to have attained length of 20 feet.
The specimen at the academy is nearly
feet long and has been very well preserved
In appearance the animal resembles the
manatee, or sea COW. Its ripper lip is large,
thick and fieshy, and its snout is like the
trunk of an elephant cut short across
When the dugong is nursing it's young,
its breasts are enlarged SO as to be almost
human in their aspect The nursing proc
ess is carried on by the mother above wa
ter. The baby dugong is pressed against
the exposed breast with one of mamma
dugong's fiippers, and in this position the
animal swims horizontally through the
water, using her remaining flipper to pro-
pei herself along. 1t is this singular char
acteristic of the animal that has given
rise to the fable of the mermaid.
Sir James Emerson Tennent, the emf.
nent naturalist, says: "The rude approach
to the human outline observable in the
shape of the head of this creature and the
attitude of the mother while sucking her
young, holding it to her breast with one
fiipper, and while swimming with the 9th
er holding the heads of both above water,
and when disturbed suddenly diving and
displaying her tishlike tail-these togeth-
er with her habitual demonstrations of
strong maternal affection, probably gave
rise to the fable of the mermaid" Ten
nent traces the origin of the myth to the
gilt edged tales of early Arabian sailors
who had watched the strange antics of the
dugong in the waters of the Manaar.
Still another characteristic of the animal
that contributes to its characterization in
and heraldry is the peculiarly
plaintive cry which it gives
when its young is imperiled or becomes de
tached from its motherly but muscular
hold. According to Ruppell, it was with
the skin of this mammal that the Jews
were directed to veil the temple.
The best proof that the dugong has been
but imperfectly described by naturalists is
the contradictory accounts of it given by
scientists. Tennent says it gives no oil |
and the author of "Wonders
Of the Deep" declares that 4 900 bottles of
oil have been obtained from one dugong.
1t is sort of marine cosmopolite, for it
has been found in the northern seas, along |
the tropical coasts and streams of Africa |
and America, in the Red sea and Indian
ocean.
Many years ago missionaries in South /
America ate the flesh of the dugong dur
ing the Lenten season, imagining that it |
was fish. 1t is classified as mammal, |
however, so that the simple missionaries
the conditions of their fast .
without knowing it.
But the dugong is doomed to extinction.
In few years, according to the reckoning
If scientists, it will have disappeared en-
,irely.-San Francisco Examiner