3-053-428 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Old Calabar, west coast of Africa, 1873. 'Old Calabar...is in the Bight of Biafra, near the island of Fernando Po...The Calabar river, like other rivers on this coast, which reach the sea through a maze of mangrove swamps, has several different mouths and channels in its lower course...The main stream, formerly called the Cross River when the inland country was less known, is navigable by steamers 200 miles; but the Old Calabar River can only be ascended thirty miles from the sea...in this river is bred that singular animal, the manatee'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.