284 SALMONIA. 



taking care of his pony, 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 unchpped hair and no 

 cap, he sometimes threw aside his locks, and 

 wrunff the water from them on the rocks. He 

 happened the year after to be at Harrowgate, 

 and was sitting at table with two young ladies 

 from Caithness, who were relating to a won- 

 dering 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 remarkably 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 pre- 

 cisely where this singular phenomenon had 

 appeared. She had noted down, not merely 

 the day, but the hour and minute, and pro- 

 duced a map of the place. Our bather refer- 

 red to his journal, and showed, that a human 

 animal was swimming in the very spot at that 

 very time, who had some of the characters 



