The captain asked Briscoe what more he could wish for.
“If you take a boat it will only be to go up a small stream and look for curiosities. You can do that as well here on board the brig without fagging the men with rowing along under the trees, where there is not a breath of air. Look yonder now: I don’t suppose you’d see such a thing as that if you were rowing. The noise of the oars would make it dive and keep out of sight.”
“What is it?” said Brace: “it looks like a buffalo bathing.”
“Not it, sir. Look again.”
“A dugong,” said Briscoe, cocking and raising his double rifle.
“Dugong or manatee. Sea-cows, we call ’em. Going to shoot it, sir?”
The American hesitated.
“It seems tempting,” he said; “but I don’t know. It’s too big for a specimen.”
“And not very good to eat; at least, I don’t suppose we should like it.”
“I’ve got it now,” said Brace, who had hurriedly adjusted his glass and was watching the huge creature, which kept on showing itself in a muddy bend of the river a few yards from the bank. “It looks like a monstrous seal.”