MERMAID. 245 



mouth. He is a young man, fond of geolo- 

 gical pursuits, and one day in the middle of 

 August, having fatigued and heated himself 

 by climbing a rock to examine a particular 

 appearance of granite, gave his clothes to 

 his Highland guide, who was taking care of 

 his poney and descended to the sea. The 

 sun was just setting, and he amused himself 

 for some time by swimming from rock to 

 rock, and having undipped hair and no cap, 

 he sometimes threw aside his locks, and 

 wrung the water from them on the rocks. 

 He happened the year after to be at Har- 

 rowgate, and was sitting at table with two 

 young ladies from Caithness, who were re- 

 lating to a wondering audience the story of 

 the mermaid they had seen, which had 

 already been published in the newspapers : 

 they described her as she usually is described 

 by poets, as a beautiful animal, with remark- 

 ably fair skin, and long green hair. The 

 young gentleman took the liberty, as most 

 of the rest of the company did, to put a few 

 questions to the elder of the two ladies — 

 such as, on what day and precisely where 



