M E R 



.Mermaid waters, what incredible numbers, what infinite variety 

 of uncommon and amazing sea monsters would exhibit 

 t| lemse i ves to our view, which are now entirely un- 

 known." Natural History of Xorway, vol. ii. p. 185. 

 Many, however, have supposed, that because a narrow 

 link appears between the human and the brute creation 

 on land, the same should exist in the sea ; and various 

 other causes have contributed to the prevalence of this 

 opinion. Nevertheless, the most skilful naturalists of 

 the present age deny the existence of the mermaid : 

 regarding those seen in the sea, as some of the various 

 species of seals ; and those exhibited as such on shore, as 

 natural subjects disguised by art. The triton of jElian 

 and Pliny are different ; the momanjish of Santos, Bar- 

 chewitz, Bartholin, and Artedi, cannot be considered 

 the same ; nor can any of those animals we have descri- 

 bed be referred to the Musague of the Pelew islands, 

 sixteen feet long, and twelve in circumference, which 

 has been lately classed with " the merman of Norway." 

 The nature and properties of the seal are yet suscepti- 

 ble of many illustrations ; and some have found an im- 

 perfect resemblance of the human form in certain or- 

 gans, to the corresponding parts of phocse. Parsons, 

 ap. Phil. Trans, vol. xlii. p. 383. A recent voyager to 

 the North remarks, that " these animals, in swimming, 

 often raise themselves as far as the shoulder above the 

 surface of the water. The first I saw in this position 

 was at a considerable distance, and might easily have 

 been mistaken for a man." Laing, p. 107. But the il- 

 lusion may be heightened still farther ; for according to 

 some authors, the tvomanfah of the African seas, when 

 taken in nets by the Negroes, shrieks and cries like a 

 woman. Captain Colnett relates also, that in the South 

 Seas, when far from land, an animal arose beside the 

 ship, and uttered shrieks and lamentations, so like 

 those proceeding from a woman, as to occasion great 

 alarm. They continued for above three hours, and 

 seemed to increase as the ship withdrew. Captain Col- 

 nett conjectured that they came from a female seal that 

 had lost its cub, or a cub that had lost its dam, but he 

 declares that no resemblance could be nearer the hu- 

 man voice. Voyage to the South Seas, p. 16'9. The 

 extreme rarity of what has been called the mermaid, 

 is far from being an argument against its existence. 

 During late years, naturalists scarcely believed in the 

 giraffe and hippopotamus; they still debate concern- 

 ing the unicorn and the mammoth ; and that such a 

 creature lived as the great sea serpent, was resolute- 

 ly denied, until one was cast up by the waves on our 

 own islands. The existence of a marine animal, part- 

 ly resembling the human species, is therefore to be con- 

 sidered a question of evidence, which remains to be 

 decided (c) 



MERSEY. See ENGLAND, vol. viii. p. 686. 



MERTHYR TYDVYL, is an ill-built and irregular 

 town of Wales, in the county of Glamorgan. It is si- 

 tuated on the river Tay, in the midst of bleak hills, 

 and derives its importance from the iron forges in its 

 neighbourhood. There is here a parish church, which 

 is a large and handsome building, about eleven meet- 

 ing-houses, a philosophical society, a printing-house, 

 and a theatre. The iron works are on a very large scale, 

 and strangers are much interested by the celebrated 

 water wheel, 100 feet in diameter. No less than 250 

 tons of iron ore are said to be furnished weekly, and 

 240 tons of coal consumed daily. The articles which 

 are here manufactured, are exported by means of na- 

 vigable canals to Cardiff, in vessels of 300 tons. Num- 

 ber of houses, 240. Population 1256. 



58 



M E S 



MESSINA, a city of Sicily, situated at the north- Messin 

 east extremity of that island, and on the eastern shore v< "V 

 of the Straits of the same name, which are particularly 

 celebrated from containing Scylla and Charybdis within 

 their precincts. They are formed by a promontory of 

 Calabria on the continental side, and Cape Pelorus on 

 the Sicilian coast, the intermediate distance being 

 about two miles. Scylla is a lofty rock, rising abrupt- Scylla, 

 ly from the sea, on the shore of Calabria, twelve miles 

 north-west of Messina : it is surmounted by a castle, 

 and declines towards the town of Scylla on the.coast 

 At the distance of two miles from it a murmuring 

 noise like the confused barking of dogs is heard, which 

 is occasioned by the dashing of the billows among the 

 caverns below : and hence the ancients fabled a hid- 

 eous female monster, surrounded by ferocious animals, 

 ready to devour those mariners who came within her 

 reach. In calm weather no danger is to be apprehend- 

 ed, but a vessel brought into the conflicting wind and the 

 current of the Straits, which sometimes runs with great 

 violence, is still exposed to destruction. Charybdis, 

 described as a raging whirlpool, which absorbed whole 

 vessels with their crews, and then rejected the broken 

 fragments and mangled bodies, lies 750 feet from the 

 city. At present, when viewed from the shore, it ap- 

 pears like a body of water in tumultuous agitation, 

 and on nearer approach the waves are discovered to 

 be larger and more disturbed, dashing together, so 

 as to produce a revolving motion among themselves, 

 throughout a circle of about 100 feet in diameter, 

 where the sea is 500 feet deep. The smallest barks 

 may now cross it in safety; but when a strong wind 

 and current are opposite, the waves become more tur- 

 bulent and extensive, and three or four, or a greater 

 number of whirlpools, are formed. Vessels driven 

 among them are not manageable, and if unassisted by 

 the pilots of the country, they founder, or are impelled 

 on the opposite shore, and wrecked. Charybdis, how- 

 ever, is not properly a vortex ; it has no power of ab- 

 sorption ; and vessels, on the contrary, are rather repel- 

 led from it by a centrifugal force. Though extricated 

 from Charybdis, a ship meeting an adverse wind on leav- 

 ing the Straits, may fall on Scylla, thus verifying the 

 words of the ancients. Twenty-four pilots are kept in 

 the service of the Sicilian government, to assist vessels 

 navigating these Straits, which were passed for the first 

 time by a modern fleet, it is said, when the British ad- 

 vanced to the battle of the Nile. 



One side of the city of Messina rises from a narrow 

 plain on the shore, along the declivity of a chain of 

 mountains, finely wooded and diversified, and another 

 sweeps along the margin of a beautiful harbour. It 

 is built with considerable regularity, nearly in the 

 figure of a parallelogram, and consists of two long 

 principal streets besides a third on the quay, inter- 

 sected by a number of others, at right angles, all of 

 which are paved with large blocks of lava from the 

 volcanoes of the island. It contains several squares 

 and open spaces, embellished with a number of sta- 

 tues and fountains, the latter copiously supplied from 

 the neighbouring mountains; from whence also tor- 

 rents descend through the streets, where they are con- 

 fined by walls to prevent their injuring the buildings. 

 A street called the Marina or Palazzata, formed of a 

 row of lofty elegant buildings, extends above a mile 

 along the harbour, where the great depth of water ad- 

 mits of the largest vessels approaching to the very 

 edge. It is penetrated by eighteen or nineteen gate- 

 ways, leading to the respective streets in the city, over 



