me de Guadaloupe, the Black Virgin of Mexico. Fonteboa has one
thousand inhabitants, drawn from the Indians on both banks, who rear
numerous cattle in the fields in the neighborhood. These occupations
do not end here, for they are intrepid hunters, or, if they prefer it,
intrepid fishers for the manatee.

On the morning of their arrival the young fellows assisted at a
very interesting expedition of this nature. Two of these herbivorous
cetaceans had just been signaled in the black waters of the Cayaratu,
which comes in at Fonteboa. Six brown points were seen moving along the
surface, and these were the two pointed snouts and four pinions of the
lamantins.

Inexperienced fishermen would at first have taken these moving points
for floating wreckage, but the natives of Fonteboa were not to be so
deceived. Besides, very soon loud blowings indicated that the spouting
animals were vigorously ejecting the air which had become useless for
their breathing purposes.

Two ubas, each carrying three fishermen, set off from the bank and
approached the manatees, who soon took flight. The black points at first
traced a long furrow on the top of the water, and then disappeared for a
time.

The fishermen continued their cautious advance. One of them, armed
with a very primitive harpoon--a long nail at the end of a stick--kept
himself in the bow of the boat, while the other two noiselessly paddled
on. They waited till the necessity of breathing would bring the manatees
up again. In ten minutes or thereabouts the animals would certainly
appear in a circle more or less confined.

In fact, this time had scarcely elapsed before the black points emerged
at a little distance, and two jets of air mingled with vapor were
noiselessly shot forth.

The ubas approached, the harpoons were thrown at the same instant; one
missed its mark, but the other struck one of the cetaceans near his
tail.

It was only necessary to stun the animal, who rarely defends himself
when touched by the iron of the harpoon. In a few pulls the cord brought
him alongside the uba, and he was towed to the beach at the foot of the
village.

It was not a manatee of any size, for it only measured about three feet
long. These poor cetaceans have been so hunted that they have become
very rare in the Amazon and its affluents, and so little time is left
them to grow that the giants of the species do not now exceed seven
feet. What are these, after manatees twelve and fiftee