234 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS. — CLASS I. MAMMALIA. 



cither liavc scon tlie animal lie described, or it must have been the efiect of a 

 disturbed imagination. 



Anutiicr incident of the kind is related by Captain C'olnett. " A very 

 singular circumstance occurred off the coast of Chili, in latitude 24° south, 

 which, as it sjircad some alarm among my people, and awakened their 

 superstitious apjireiicnsions, I shall mention. About eigiit o'clock in the 

 evening an animal rose alongside the ship, and uttered such shrieks and 

 tones of lamentation, so much like those produced by the female humr.n 

 voice when expressing the deepest distress, as to occasion no small degree of 

 alarm amtmg those who first heard it. Tliese cries lasted for upwards of three 

 hours, and seemed to increase as the shi]i sailed from it. I never heard any 

 noise whatever that ap[)roached so near those sounds wiiich proceed from the 

 organs of utterance in the human s[)ecies. One of the men was so j>anic- 

 struck, tiiat had he been much longer in landing he would certainly hare 

 died." 



In tliis last instance no description of the appearance, the size, color, or 

 form of the animal is given. It was evidently some species of seal, as was 

 also that oljservcd by Captain "W^eddell's sailor. The lamentations and 

 sin-ieks mentioned by Captain Colnett can easily lie recognized as the cries 

 of several species of seals, and the whining murmurs of one of these ani- 

 mals were undoubtedly fashioned into music by tlic excited imagination of 

 the sailor. JNIcn are natm-aily prone to tiic marvellous, and unusual siglits 

 and sounds lia\e always fiu-nished tlic materials out nf wiiich a poetic fancy 

 has wo\en its wonderful legends ; and tliough banished from science, the 

 mermaid will continue to live in poetry so long as the immortal verses of 

 Shakespeare and (ioetlie are known and read. Tlie passage of the great 

 dramatist, conunencing, " I heard a mermaid on a dojpliin's back uttering 

 such dulcet and harmonious breatli," and tlie poem of the great (lerman, 

 entitled "The Fisher,'" will secure the mermaid a perpetual existence in the 

 realms of song. 



ORDER VI.— CETACEA. 



This great order, and interesting from many jxiints of view, is divided 

 into two families, the llcrhiroruiis: L'rlf, and the Trite Whulrs; tlie first of 

 which naturally follows tiie Ampliibians, and in some particidars nearly 

 touches tlje circle of that great family. The Cetaceans have the anterior 

 extremities shaped into Hippcrs, and the posterior midivided, but forming 

 one horizontal, flattened tail. They are \vithout a pelvis, having barely 

 two bones, suspended witiiin the nuiscles, as a rudiment of it. 



