A Lamantin Chase on Lake Mabuisso [pp. 400-402]

APPLETON$S' JO URNA zL OF POPULAR
quired by close study and patient practice, by many and repeated failures. A good cook can make a pleasant and healthful
meal out of a few simple articles. A poor cook will make a
wretched dinner, even with the whole market at her disposal.
I hope to see the day when the art of preparing food will be
taught in our schools, like other important branches; when
young girls and young wives will go to the cooking-school as
theynow go to the dancing-hall, and when even ladies of fashion
will boast of their bread and their puddings as they now boast
of their acquisitions in music and French.
A variety of food is more healthful than one or two kinds,
because it is more easily digested. This is a law of Nature.
Appetite teaches us to combine sweet with sour, vegetables
with meat, dry food with watery, etc.
A meal composed simply of dry Graham bread, or of potatoes, or of fruit even, is far, far less palatable and less digestible
than a meal composed of all three varieties at once. Science
and experience are here in perfect accord.
If, therefore, we must eat candy, let it either be with or just
after our meals. If we must eat sweets in the evening, let us
have sour fruit-apples, or lemons, or oranges-at the same
time, and we shall be less injured. We should never eat a large
quantity, either of sweet or of sour substances, on a perfectly
empty stomach.
Still another common fallacy is, that brain-workers need less
nutriment than those who live by their muscles.
This idea would never have been entertained if people had
depended on their own observation and experience. But we
have been influenced by false teachings and erroneous theories.
Any one who has attended associations of clergymen, or
alumni meetings, or has boarded with students, has had opportunity to see that brain-worklers are large eaters, as indeed they
should be if they are really hard workers. The changes of tissue
in the brain, that take place during study and thought, are very
important and very rapid, and must be replaced by abundant
food.
A LAIMANTIN CHASE ON LAKE MIABUISSO.*
A FEWNV days after our excursion to Lake Palta Cocha, as John,
the padre's steward, was serving us at dinner with slices of
delicious fried manatee, or lamantin, my host, inspired by its flavor,
invited me to a hunt of these herbivorous cetaceans. I signified my
acceptance, and several Indian neophytes were notified to be in readiness.
It was in the month of February, when the manatees seek their
mates, and when this preoccupation of the male and female gives to
the hunter-naturalist his best chance for success. The next morning, by seven o'clock, our pirogues were descending the current of
the Ucayali, and soon reached the mouth of a natural canal, which
we entered through a thick growth of water-plants, a resort of the
mosquitoes, which levied on us their accustomed toll. This canal led
to Lake Mabuisso, which is about nine miles in area. Its low banks
are bordered with false maize, a choice food of the manatee. On
entering these still waters, our pirogues turned toward the left
bank, the rowers quietly took in their oars, and, enjoining upon the
women not to talk, our harpooners standing at the bows, took a
general survey of the lake. After some minutes of suspense, a little
noise drew all eyes to our right. The dark muzzle of a manatee appeared among the water-plants. Blowing out the vitiated air from its
lungs, it made several rapid inspirations, and, having thus satisfied its
amphibious exigencies, swam toward the middle of the lake. Suddenly
five other muzzles popped up in various places. Perceiving the
first manatee, they manceuvred to meet it in the centre of a circle.
When close upon it they stopped to breathe a moment, and then
rushed together, while the other evaded them by diving. The water
flew up as they met, belabored by their rapid evolutions and by the
violent slaps of the tail which they freely administered to each other.
Amid these muddy billows, tossed as by fires beneath, snorting muz * From PaulB~arkoy's Tavels ill Suth America Hachette &C~o., Paris
* From Paul tMarkoy's Travels in South America. ilachette & Co., Paris.
zles, fleshy flappers, and large spatula tails, flirted with such queer
bounds and somersets, that I asked Father Antonio, with bated
breath, what manner of insane gymnastics these manatees of Lake
Mabuisso practised. But what my ignorance took for sport, was a combat among a group of males, struggling for the possession of a female.
The conflict was soon over, then all being quiet again, two emerged
together at a little distance from the battle-field, and, swimming in
company, gained the middle of the lake, where we lost sight of them.
But, while I was lamenting our disappointment, these fugitives, as if
from regard for natural science of which I was the humble representative, deigned to reappear amid the flooded meadows. Two brown
curves sallying parallel above the waves, two swimming paws beating
with rhythmical movement, announced that in the waters, as on land,
"None but the brave deserve the fair."
Among the manatees, the males are said to be more numerous than
the females, and it is not very rare to see one of the latter surrounded
by several of the ruder sex, and liable to be crushed by their impetuous ardor.
When, by signs that rarely cheat their practised eyes, the manateehunters have ascertained the presence of a female in one of these
lakes, they bar its affluent canal so as to retain the pretenders of her
suite. These victims sooner or later succumb to the harpoon. Their
temptress is sometimes comprised in the massacre, but, oftener distinguished by her form and style of movement, she is allowed to reenter
the Ucayali, so that with innocent perfidy she may again serve the sinister designs of the hunter.
From the seventh degree of south latitude, between the missions of
Sarrayacu and of Tierra Blanca, begins that great series of canals and
lakes which so curiously profile both sides of the Ucayali. Their formation is due to the continued degradation of its banks, from the territory of the Sensis to the Maranon. Their inundations, consequent
upon the melting of the mountain snows, are formidably impetuous,
and, when they subside, the depressions of soil, far and wide, remain as
lakes. Surplus waters find their way back to the river by ravines, and
thus permanent communications or canals are formed between the
river and the inland lake. Cetaceans, turtles, alligators, and fishes,
coming from the river in its overflow, accustom themselves to the
newly-fillh! lakes and there multiply.
From the 15th of August, to the 15th of November, the Ucayali
is lowest, receiving then no snows from the Sierra, and then, as it
ceases to flow back into the canals, this communication with the lakes
is cut off, and their waters settle clear and limpid.
When rains fall in the valleys, and snows on the hills, the river,
again rising, amply indemnifies the lakes for their losses during the
dog-days. By favor of this second overflow, most of the species imprisoned in the lakes regain the river, while others come out of it and
take their place.
Nothing can be simpler than the manatee-chase in these small
lakes or ponds. Guided by the sound of its blowing (as it must
emerge about every ten minutes to renew its breath), the boat is softly
paddled within harpoon-range of the cetacean. Hurled into almost any
part of its body, this weapon suffices to stun the beast, and the clumsy
but powerful bulk, that looks as though it might resist the shock of a
battering-ram, succumbs to the first wound.
Of three male manatees that we took in Lake Mabuisso, the first
was struck in the folds of the neck, the second in the middle of the
body, the third between the caudal vertebrae. The death-blow was
given to each, and their bodies, attached by the swimming-paws, were
towed to the Ucayali, then dragged upon a beach, which afforded all
conveniences for a grand roast. Fat, three inches thick, covered flesh
so rosy and firm, that it made our mouths water to see it.
The manatee, or lamantin, is a very singular-looking creature, appearing like a curious mixture of several dissimilar animals, the seal
and the hippopotamus being predominant.
Of the several species, two are found in America and one in Africa,
but always on the Atlantic shores.
The manatee is seldom permitted to attain its full growth, and, instead of the fifteen feet accorded to it by zoologists, the largest of the
Ucayali-Amazon measure but six or seven feet from tai! to muzzle.
For the last two centuries, commerce, under the insidious pretext of
affection for their flesh and esteem for their oil, has waged upon them
an exterminative warfare. Their meat is jerked, and their fat tried
out for exportation. Deserting the deltas of rivers, they have sought
refuge in the lakes of the interior, where their massacre is now con
[JuNI 26,;