Mermaid of' the Shetland Seas. 59 



rous cetacea do not breathe by blow-holes, like the porpesse or 

 the grampus. Again, they say, the animal " had no ears,'* but 

 that as, when they spoke, it moved three long gristle-like bristles, 

 they concluded that it heard by means of these appendages. 

 This last is a palpable blunder, these being evidently feelers or 

 organs of touch ; and as to the animal having no ears, the Shet- 

 landers must be understood as merely meaning that it had no 

 external ears, which is the case with these cetacea. 



The imperfection of the description given by uneducated 

 fishermen need not be wondered at, when it is considered how 

 very meagre and unsatisfactory, sometimes, are the descrip- 

 tions of animals published by well educated men, but who 

 have never made zoology their particular study. It should fur- 

 ther be remembered, that the men had to attend to their fishing- 

 lines, probably not less than three or four miles in length ; that 

 they never expected to be questioned on the subject ; that they 

 could not divest themselves of superstitious dread regarding the 

 strange visitor they had unintentionally called from its profound 

 abode ; and, of course, laboured under prejx)ssessions, and were 

 apt to see every thing through a false medium. Lastly, it 

 should be considered that they viewed the animal under the 

 physical disadvantage of deficient light. The deep sea lines are 

 always drawn during night ; and it is mentioned that it was 

 " about midnight," in the " beginning of July," that the animal 

 was taken. In a clear night at sea, at that period of the year, 

 the light off' Shetland is sufficient, not only for all the purposes 

 of unhooking the fisli and sorting the lines, but even for reading 

 large print ; still it is only twilight, rendered bright, but some- 

 what flickering and uncertain, by the reflected light from the 

 surface of the ocean. 



We may notice that, above forty years ago, as mentioned by 

 the late Mr Charles Stewart, in his Eleme^its of Natural His- 

 tory, a specimen of the Lamantine, one of the herbivorous ceta- 

 cea, occurred in the Frith of Forth ; and we may add, that there 

 seems no good reason for supposing that the Syren, another of 

 these small sea-weed eating whales, may not sometimes wander 

 into the Deucaledonian Sea. But it is remarked by Dr Fleming 

 of Flisk, in his excellent Philosophy of Zoology (vol. ii. p. 204), 

 that the " herbivorous apodal mammalia, probably consist of 



