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National Geographic : 1969 Sep
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Florida' " T EDNESDAY the ninth of January ... when the Admiral went to the S River of Gold,* he said he saw three mermaids... they were not as beautiful as they are painted though they had something like the human face. He said he had seen some before off the coast of Guinea...." The year was 1493 and the admiral Chris topher Columbus. Less than three months had gone by since he had first sighted the New World. What he saw was undoubtedly the manatee, found in African as well as New World waters and linked to this day with the mermaid of legend. My own introduction to the American mer maid was not as glamorous, but equally im pressive-to me, at least. As a biology stu dent, I had chosen the Florida manatee as the subject for my doctoral dissertation. From a punt on the spring-fed headwaters of the Crystal River, 65 miles north of Tampa, I saw a pair of dark noses break the surface. The clear water would be ideal for this, my first chance to observe manatees from beneath the surface. I eased myself off the bow and swam toward them, reassuring myself all the while that, of course, manatees are harmless. I passed over gardens of algae, over beds of wild celery, water milfoil, and spires formed by the rank growth of emerald waterweeds. Suddenly I was upon them, or rather, they were upon me, looming forth some twenty feet away, spectral gray leviathans, colossi, ridiculously imposing, looking like something that had eluded the fancy of Jules Verne. One was heading directly for me. Scientific inquiry be hanged! I swallowed my pride, and rocketed back into the boat. I was safe, a confessed coward. But how *Probably the Rio Yaque del Norte, in the present day Dominican Republic. A manatee named Zachary takes the au thor on a guided tour of the sea cow's irides cent realm. With pencil and waterproof plastic chart for recording details, Mr. Hart man pursues his beneath-the-surface study of these gentle giants-members of a mam malian order called Sirenia because of a fancied resemblance to the mythical siren, or mermaid. EKTACHROME © N.G.S. 342 Manatees, was I ever to conduct my research if I was afraid to study my subjects? That was nearly two years ago. Since then I have spent many days snorkeling with the very animals that "chased" me out of the water that fall morning. I have named them Hobe and Paralee, and they are but two of a population of forty to fifty manatees that
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