THE MERMAID. 207 



those parts so well proportioned, having round about the 

 head many blue streaks resembling hair, but certainly it 

 was no hair. The shoulders and back down to the middle 

 were square, white, and smooth as the back of a man, and 

 from the middle to the end it tapered like a broad-hooked 

 arrow." The animal put both its paws on the side of the 

 boat wherein its observer sat, and strove much to get in, 

 but was repelled by a blow. 



In 1676, a description was given by an English surgeon 

 named Glover, of an animal of this kind. The author did 

 not designate it by any name, but his account of it was 

 communicated to the Royal Society, and was duly recorded 

 in the Philosophical Transactions* 



" About three leagues from the mouth of the river Rappahannock, 

 in America, while alone in a vessel, I observed, at the distance of about 

 half a stone-throw," he says, "a most prodigious creature, much 

 resembling a man, only somewhat larger, standing right up in the 

 water, with his head, neck, shoulders, breast and waist, to the cubits 

 of his arms, above water, and his skin was tawny, much like that of 

 an Indian ; the figure of his head was pyramidal and sleek, without 

 hair ; his eyes large and black, and so were his eyebrows ; his mouth 

 very wide, with a broad black streak on the upper lip, which turned 

 upwards at each end like mustachios. His countenance was grim and 

 terrible. His neck, shoulders, arms, breast and waist, were like unto 

 the neck, arms, shoulders, breast and waist of a man. His hands, if 

 he had any, were under water. He seemed to stand with his eyes 

 fixed on me for some time, and afterwards dived down, and, a little 

 after, rose at somewhat a greater distance, and turned his head 

 towards me again, and then immediately fell a little under water, that 

 I could discern him throw out his arms and gather them in as a man 

 does when he swims. At last, he shot with his head downwards, by 

 which means he cast his tail above the water, which exactly re- 

 sembled the tail of a fish, with a broad fane at the end of it." 



Dr. John Hill tells us t that soon after the publication of 



* Glover's * Account of Virginia,' ap. Phil. Trans, vol. xi. p. 625. 

 f 'A Review of the Works of the Royal Society of London,' 1751, 

 p. 96. 



