y cannot crawl
with ease when placed on the ground. I observed that one which I kept
in the cabin was slightly phosphorescent in the dark.

[Illustration]

THE COW-FISH

(FROM TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON.)

BY SIR ALFRED RUSSELL WALLACE.

[Illustration: SKULL OF COW-FISH.]

It was a female, about six feet long, and nearly five in circumference
in the thickest part. The body is perfectly smooth, and without any
projections or inequalities, changing into a horizontal semicircular
flat tail, with no appearance whatever of hind limbs. There is no
distinct neck; the head is not very large, and is terminated by a
large mouth and fleshy lips, somewhat resembling those of a cow. There
are stiff bristles on the lips, and a few distantly scattered hairs
over the body. Behind the head are two powerful oval fins, and just
beneath them are the breasts, from which, on pressure being applied,
flows a stream of beautiful white milk. The ears are minute holes, and
the eyes very small. The color is a dusky lead, with some large
pinkish-white marbled blotches on the belly. The skin is about an inch
thick on the back, and a quarter of an inch on the belly. Beneath the
skin is a layer of fat of a greater or less thickness, generally about
an inch, which is boiled down to make an oil used for light and for
cooking. The intestines are very voluminous, the heart about the size
of a sheep's, and the lungs about two feet long, and six or seven
inches wide, very cellular and spongy, and can be blown out like a
bladder. The skull is large and solid, with no front teeth; the
vertebrae extend to the very tip of the tail, but show no rudiments of
posterior limbs; the fore limbs, on the contrary, are very highly
developed, the bones exactly corresponding to those of the human arm,
having even the five fingers, with every joint distinct, yet enclosed
in a stiff inflexible skin, where not a joint can have any motion.

The cow-fish feeds on grass at the borders of the rivers and lakes,
and swims quickly with the tail and paddles; and though the external
organs of sight and hearing are so imperfect, these senses are said by
the hunters to be remarkably acute, and to render necessary all their
caution and skill to capture the animals. They bring forth one, or
rarely two, young ones, which they clasp in their arms or paddles
while giving suck. They are harpooned or caught in a strong net, at
the narrow entrance of a lake or stream. Each yields fr