Creator D'Urville Dumont

Date 1829

From Dumont D'Urville's Voyage of the Astrolabe 1826-1829. .The Dugong lives in the northern waters of Australia from Shark Bay in WA to Moreton Bay in Qld. This wonderful marine mammal, more closely related to the elephant than any other creature, belongs to the 'Sirenia' order of animals; the mythological name referring to mermaids, for which they were often mistaken by lonely sailors on long voyages. The French scientists, perhaps also attracted by seductive calling of the Sirenia, focussed here on its reproductive anatomy...Comte Jules Dumont d’Urville sailed to Sydney, Hobart and large parts of the Australian coast as part of a lavish expedition of scientific discovery in the Australia-Pacific region, including New Zealand and the East Indies. The scientific illustrations are extraordinarily fine. ⁣The account of the Voyage of the Astrolabe was published in 1835. The principal artist was Louis Auguste de Sainson (1800-1887)...⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣(‘Voyage de la corvette l’Astrolabe exécuté par ordre du roi: pendant les années 1826-1827-1828-1829’)

Source: New York Public Library