

THE MERMAID. 213 



behind, of colour black. In her going down they saw her tail, which 

 was like the tail of a porpoise and speckled like a mackerel's. Their 

 names that saw her were Thomas Hilles and Robert Rayner." 



Steller, who was a zoologist of some repute, reported 

 having seen in Behrings Straits a strange animal, which he 

 called a " sea-ape," and in which one might almost recog- 

 nise Pontoppidan's " Sea-Quoyas-Morrov." It was about 

 five feet long, had sharp and erect ears and large eyes, 

 and on its lips a kind of beard. Its body was thick and 

 round, and tapered to the tail, which was bifurcated, with 

 the upper lobe longest. It was covered with thick hair, 

 grey on the back, and red on the belly. No feet nor paws 

 were visible. It was full of frolic, and sported in the 

 manner of a monkey, swimming sometimes on one side of 

 the ship and sometimes on the other. It often raised one- 

 third of its body out of the water, and stood upright for a 

 considerable time. It would frequently bring up a sea- 

 plant, not unlike a bottle-gourd, which it would toss about 

 and catch in its mouth, playing numberless fantastic tricks 

 with it. 



But it is probable that Steller afterwards recognised the 

 animal, which he at the time compared to the ape ; for he 

 gives the following description of the sea-otter, which is 

 now so rare and shy, but which in his time, and on the 

 previously unvisited islands in Behring's Sea, was both 

 common and free from timidity at the sight of man. 



" With respect to playfulness," he says, " it surpasses every other 

 animal that lives either in the sea or on the land. When it comes up 

 out of the sea it shakes the water from its fur, and dresses it, as a cat 

 does its head with its fore-paws, stretches its body, arranges its hair, 

 throws its head this way and that, contemplating itself and its beau- 

 tiful fur with evident satisfaction. The animal is so much taken up 

 with this dressing of itself, that while thus employed it may be easily 

 approached and killed. If it eludes an attack it makes the most 



