[CHAPTER XV.]
THE PROFESSOR IN TROUBLE.
“Dancing dairy farms of Delaware!” gasped Dick. “What on earth is a sea-cow?”
“Gives salt-water milk, I guess,” grinned Tom, greatly relieved, however, to find that the blood-curdling noise was of animal and not human origin.
“That shows that you young chaps have a heap to learn,” chuckled Captain Sprowl. “The sea-cow don’t look no more like a cow than I do.”
“Ach, no! Der zee-cow iss der manatee,” put in the professor.
“That’s right, professor, and I guess we ain’t the first that’s been scared by their unholy howlings,” said the captain.
“Idt pelongs py der family Manitidæ,” went on the professor, “undt is vun of der Herbiverous Cetacea.”
“In plain United States, it’s a sort of grass-eating fish,” explained the captain, “although it looks something like a big, clumsy seal. There must be a river some place about here, for they always live near the mouth of streams. I’ve seen ’em twenty feet long; but, in general, they run about twelve feet. Had one upset a canoe under me in Florida once; but there ain’t many left there now.”
“A river!” exclaimed Jack. “Well, then, that unearthly racket means that we’ve found a place to land on, for a river will do just as well as dry land so far as we are concerned.”
“By the holy poker! You’re right, lad,” declared the captain; “bear off a few points to the north there. That’s where that sea-going dairy ranch is located, to judge by the racket.”