Description of a Mermaid. 195 
8, 
oat, appear very beautiful. You might think them beds of 
varie mosses and flowers, so various are the shapes and 
colors which they present. If you break off a sprig, you 
will often find it tipped with something like a small flower, 
with very brilliant colors: red, green and purple; which, 
however, penny lose their color and become white, on 
exposure to the a 
erceive, on oer to your very kind letter, receiv- 
ed just as I left America, you enumerate some minerals, as 
natives of Ceylon, which | have not mentioned—the Corti 
dum, Chrysoberyl, spinelle; also silver and gold. : can add 
nothing concerning them are 
ties I do not know, indeed, of any gold mines a that are 
ought at present, but the precious metal is found in small 
quantities in the mountains of the interior.” 
3. Mermaid. 
The following letter is 4 so respectable a source, that 
we hesitate not to publish it in this Journal. The 
maid spoken of in this et ‘5, as we are informed, the 
same that was purchased by Captain Edes, of Boston, and 
carried to England. As it will probably be soon exhibited 
a ba nary, both the credulous and the incredulous, 
1 have an opportunity to judge whether the Japanese 
sive fabricated a Mermaid, or whether it is a genuine pro- 
duction of nature. Eprror. 
ovat of a letter to Mr. James S. Wallace, of New-York, 
Baravia, March, 10th, 1822. 
** What I have seen with mine own me and felt with 
mine own hands, that I believe.” I send youa description 
of a Mermaid taken on the shores of Japan sometime last 
year, and brought to this place a few months since, by one 
of the regular Dutch 1g The measurement I made my- 
