SO MAMMALIA. CETACEA. Bal.enopteiia. 



It is probable that other species of the animals of this group do live in our 

 seas, and occasionally give rise to the reports which have appeared, in by no 

 means a questionable shape, of Mermaids. Whether these belong to the Mana- 

 tus or Rytina, must be left to future observers ; but the following particulars, 

 which have been very properly communicated, of a Zetland mermaid, cap- 

 tured in Yell Sound in the summer of 1823, by an intelligent naturalist, Lau- 

 rence Edmondstone, Esq. surgeon, Unst, from the reports of the fishermen, 

 here merit a place : 



" The animal was about 3 feet long, the upper part of the body resembling 

 the human form, with protuberant mammae like aAvoman; the face, forehead and 

 neck, short, and resembling those of a monkey ; small arms, which it kept folded 

 across its breast ; distinct fingers, not webbed ; a few stiff long bristles were on 

 the top of the head, extending down to the shoulders, and which it could erect 

 or depress at pleasure, something like a crest. The lower part of the body like 

 a fish ; the skin smooth, and of a grey colour. It offered no resistance, nor at- 

 tempted to bite, but uttered a low, plaintive sound. The crew, six in num- 

 ber, took it within their boat, but superstition getting the better of curiosity, 

 and not aware of a specific remuneration for carrying it to land, they care- 

 fully disentangled it from the lines, and a hook which had accidentally fasten- 

 ed in its body, and returned it to its native element. It instantly dived, de- 

 scending in a perpendicular direction." — " I have since seen the skipper of 

 the boat, and one of his crew, and learned these additional details. They had 

 the animal about three hours within the boat. The body without scales or 

 hair, silver-grey above, whitish below, like the human skin — no gills were ob- 

 served — no fins on the back or belly — tail like that of a dog-fish — very thick 

 over the breast — by the eye, the girth might be between two and three feet 

 — the neck short, very distinct from the head and shoulders — the body rather 

 depressed — the anterior extremities very like the human hand, about the length 

 of a seal's paw, webbed to about an inch of the ends of the fingers — mammae 

 as large as those of a woman — mouth and lips very distinct, and resembling 

 the human." These particulars are contained in two letters to Professor 

 Jameson, dated 10th and 14th August 1823, and published in the Edinburgh 

 Magazine for September 1823, p. 34fi. 



CETACEA. 



I. Palate covered with baleen. Jaws destitute of teeth. 

 A. Back furnished with a protuberance or Jin. Piked Whales. 



Gen. XXIX. BAL.ENOPTERA.— Pectoral skin folded lon- 

 gitudinally, and capable of being inflated. 



45. R. Muscultts. Round-lipped Whale. — Margin of the 



under lip semicircular. 



De Balaena tripinni quae maxillam inferiorem rotundam, et superiore 

 multo latiorem habuit, Sibb. Phal. p. 78. tab. iii — B. musculus, Linn. 



Syst. 1. 106 Balaenoptera acuto-rostrata, Seoresby, Arct. Iieg. i. 485. 



tab. xiii. fig. 2. 



A male of this species, according to Sibbald, 78 feet in length, came ashore 

 at Abercorn, in the Frith of Forth, in September 1C92. Its circumference 

 was about 35 feet. The lower jaw was 13 feet 2 inches in length. The gape 

 large and triangular. The upper jaw was narrower, becoming pointed to- 

 wards the extremity; and was embraced by the longer and wider under jaw. 

 The tongue was convoluted, 15 feet 7 inches in length, and 15 feet at the 



