Oviedo are true, and it is remarkable that Cieça, and many others after him, should affirm, that the manati leaves the water very often to feed upon land. They have been led into this error, from the analogy of the walrus and seals, which have this natural habit; but it is certain, that the manati never quits the water, and that he prefers fresh water to salt. [Footnote J: These paps are very prominent during the time of gestation, and of suckling the young; but at other periods they are discernible only by the nipple.] Clusius saw and measured the skin of one of these animals, and found it sixteen feet and a half long, and seven feet and a half broad; the two feet were very broad, and the claws short. Gomara asserts, that he has sometimes met with them twenty feet long; and adds, that these animals frequent fresh-water rivers as well as the sea. He says, a young one was reared in a lake in the island of St. Domingo for twenty-six years; that he was so docile and tame, that he came quietly for the food which was offered to him; that he was so intelligent as to come out of the water when called, and crawl to the house to receive his victuals; that he seemed delighted with the human voice; that he was fond of children, would suffer them to sit upon his back, and carry them from one end of the lake to the other, without plunging them into the water; and that he had no kind of fear. These circumstances cannot all be true; some of them seem adapted to the fable of the dolphin related by the ancients, for the manati cannot possibly crawl on the ground. Herrere says little with regard to this animal, and only asserts, that although very large, the manati swims with such facility, that his motion in the water is not heard; and that he immediately dives to the bottom, on hearing any noise.