even by the inhabitants at a distance. I, too, have some 

 distinguished informants who state that they themselves saw 

 once in the ocean of Gades a sea man, which bore in every 

 part of his body a perfect resemblance to a human being, 

 and that during the night he would climb up into the 

 ships ; upon which, the side of the vessel where he seated 

 himself would instantly sink downward, and if he remained 

 there a considerable time even go under the water. 

 Among the older naturalists Juvenal speaks in his four- 

 teenth satire of " the monsters of the ocean, and the youths 

 of the sea." PUny too talks of " human beings who have 

 been beloved by dolphins." And in the Eastern Archipelago 

 and in regions thereabouts are animals found which bear a 

 very striking resemblance, or at least give colour to, many 

 of these old tales. There can be no doubt that the old stories 

 of mermaids were brought down to us by travellers, who, 

 like du Chaillu, had their statements magnified to an in- 

 definite extent. Without entering further into the stories 

 of mermaids— for he imagined they as a Natural History 

 Society wanted something more than mere story telling — 

 he would only indicate in a few words how these stoiies had 

 their origin, and then pass on to the more serious part of 

 the lecture. In the reign of Alexander a great number of 

 his sailors brought stories as to enormous sea monsters 

 who possessed attributes in common with man. The 

 sylphs and sirens of old were familiar to all readers of clas- 

 sical literature. In the reign of the Emperor Augustus, a 

 Tery affecting incident was recorded of a boy who was a 

 good player on the lute, and who used to play that instru- 

 ment daily when going to school. An attachment sprung 

 up between him and a dolphin who inhabited a lake on the 

 road which the boy took daily. The fish used to come to 

 the surface and listen intently to the strains of music, and 

 ■when the boy left, retire to the deepest part of the lake as if 

 Borrowing for his absence. At last the boy died, and when 

 the poor dolphin found lie was not coming any more, he 

 also sickened and died. It was also recorded that Alexander 

 the Great ma<le a boy high priest of Neptune at Babylon on 

 account of his love for a dolphin, and his skill iu music. 



