animal as Fig. 157 of Squier and Davis, but is a better executed
carving.

In illustration of the somewhat vague idea entertained by archæologists
as to what the manatee is like, it is of interest to note that the
carving of a second otter with a fish in its mouth has been made to do
duty as a manatee, although the latter animal is well known never to eat
fish, but, on the contrary, to be strictly herbivorous. Thus Stevens
gives figures of two carvings in his "Flint Chips," p. 429, Figs. 65 and
66, calling them manatees, and says: "In one particular, however, the
sculptors of the mound-period committed an error. Although the lamantin
is strictly herbivorous, feeding chiefly upon subaqueous plants and
littoral herbs, yet upon one of the stone smoking-pipes, Fig. 66, this
animal is represented with a fish in its mouth." Mr. Stevens apparently
preferred to credit the mound sculptor with gross ignorance of the
habits of the manatee, rather than to abate one jot or tittle of the
claim possessed by the carving to be considered a representation of that
animal. Stevens's fish-catching manatee is the same carving given by Dr.
Rau, in the Archæological Collection of the United States National
Museum, p. 47, Fig. 180, where it is correctly stated to be an otter.
This cut, which can scarcely be distinguished from one given by Stevens
(Fig. 66), is here reproduced (Fig. 6), together with the second
supposed manatee of the latter writer (Fig. 7).

[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Otter of Rau; Manatee of Stevens.]

[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Manatee of Stevens.]

To afford a means of comparison, Fig. 154, from the "Ancient Monuments"
of Squier and Davis, is introduced (Fig. 8). The same figure is also to