Arien, too, who was a beautiful performer on the lute or 

 lyre was at one time on board a ship, and from some cause 

 or other the sailors took a dislike to him, and pitched both 

 him and his lyre overboard. The dolphins who were fol- 

 lowing the ship in great numbers bore him on their backs 

 safely to the promontory of Tanacrum. In the " Arabian 

 Nights Entertainment," too, frequent mention was made of 

 fish, and many stories are told concerning them. Leaving the 

 more fanciful portion of the subject, the lecturer 

 went on to say that he should endeavour to 

 show what the old mermaids really were — be- 

 cause there were in the animals which had been grouped 

 together into the order called sirenia, certain characteristics 

 which were specially worthy of notice, as showing the con- 

 nection between them and the class of animals which doubt- 

 less had given rise to the stories now current about mermen 

 and mermaids. The order sii-enia was in some respects 

 synonymous with the group which embraced the dolphin 

 tribe ; and these were not to be confounded with fish, in- 

 asmuch as they breathed pure air only, coming to 

 the surface and blowing like whales. To this group 

 of mammalia, the name cetacea had been given. The 

 tail was quite difi'erent from an ordinary fish, and was 

 worked in a horizontal instead of a perpendicular manner. 

 They had the nasal organ fixed in the crown of the head, 

 one fin at each side, and another at the top. [All these 

 peculiarities were explained fully by Dr. Murie, by the aid 

 of a series of beautifully executed representations of the 

 animals described, which it is, of course, impossible to re- 

 produce here.] The order sirenia consisted of four differ- 

 ent groups or kinds, to which he would allude in detail. 

 The first of these was the halicore, or dugong. These ani- 

 mals were herbiverous, or feeders on vegetal life, and they 

 bore some resemblance to cows, in this respect — that they 

 did not live always in the water, but often came up the 

 creeks which they inhabited on to the land and browsed 

 like oxen. They were thus carnivorous and herbiverous. 

 Cuvier, and some of the older naturalists, had noted these 

 peculiarities, and pointed out that they seemed to belong to 



