ere confounded; and grave
doubts were entertained as to which of the two was the "Taprobane" of
antiquity. GEMMA FRISIUS, SEBASTIAN MUNSTER, JULIUS SCALIGER, ORTELIUS
and MERCATOR contended for the former; SALMASIUS, BOCHART, CLUVERIUS,
and VOSSIUS for Ceylon: and the controversy did not cease till it was
terminated by DELISLE about the beginning of the last century.

VIII. CETACEA.--Whales are so frequently seen that they have been
captured within sight of Colombo, and more than once their carcases,
after having been flinched by the whalers, have floated on shore near
the lighthouse, tainting the atmosphere within the fort by their rapid
decomposition.

Of this family, one of the most remarkable animals on the coast is the
dugong[1], a phytophagous cetacean, numbers of which are attracted to
the inlets, from the bay of Calpentyn to Adam's Bridge, by the still
water and the abundance of marine algae in these parts of the gulf. One
which was killed at Manaar and sent to me to Colombo[2] in 1847,
measured upwards of seven feet in length; but specimens considerably
larger have been taken at Calpentyn, and their flesh is represented as
closely resembling veal.

[Footnote 1: _Halicore dugung_, F. Cuv.]

[Footnote 2: The skeleton is now in the Museum of the Natural History
Society of Belfast.]

[Illustration: THE DUGONG.]

The rude approach to the human outline, observed in the shape of the
head of this creature, and the attitude of the mother when suckling her
young, clasping it to her breast with one flipper, while swimming with
the other, holding the heads of both above water; and when disturbed,
suddenly diving and displaying her fish-like tail,--these, together with
her habitual demonstrations of strong maternal affection, probably gave
rise to the fable of the "mermaid;" and thus that earliest invention of
mythical physiology may be traced to the Arab seamen and the Greeks, who
had watched the movements of the dugong in the waters of Manaar.

Megasthenes records the existence of a creature in the ocean, near
Taprobane, with the aspect of a woman[1]; and AElian, adopting and
enlarging on his information, peoples the seas of Ceylon with fishes
having the heads of lions, panthers, and rams, and, stranger still,
_cetaceans in the form of satyrs_. Statements such as these must have
had their origin in the hairs, which are set round the mouth of the
dugong, somewhat resembling a beard, which AElian and Megasthenes bot