Sea cows, or manatee, also have been known to get in the way of outboard motors, but they almost always lose. The outboard and its owners are in fact the manatee's only natural enemies! They are extraordinarily docile creatures who spend their days schmooing along the riverbottoms looking for water lilies to eat.

I once put my arm around one and he gave me a ride along the river bottom. I asked him who he was, and he reckoned he was just Joe Manatee, an ordinary kind of person.

A