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monster. Another will say perhaps, " Yes, it is true that it sells the 

 papers, and it is a curious fact, that all through the summer, we 

 haven't heard of him once, for the simple reason that the Home 

 Kule Bill has kept hi in away." 



Well, gentlemen, you can of course enjoy your various opinions ; 

 personally, I shall " sit upon the fence," as the Americans say, 

 and observe that I don't know what to believe. However, it is 

 generally conceded that he is about a quarter of a mile in length, 

 that he has jaws capable of swallowing one of our little fishing 

 crafts, and that he is about as thick round the body as the mast of 

 a man-of-war. All accounts vary in details however, as to the 

 colour of his hair, the number of his teeth, and as to the re- 

 marks he makes on his appearing. Some say he roars and 

 bellows, others not ; and in fact there are so many different ver- 

 sions as to his personality, that I think we may well dismiss him 

 from our minds, marked, as an eminent lawyer used to mark some 

 of his briefs, with a large D.C., which being interpreted, meant 

 "Doubtful Case." 



We next have to deal with a myth, which can scarcely be 

 called a monster, inasmuch as it is of the gentler sex, and 

 although ladies are privileged to call the male g^ums homo a mon- 

 ster, when she doesn't happen to precisely attain the object for 

 which she has planned (say a sealskin jacket for instance), yet 

 the aforesaid ^enus homo must reply in very homceopcUhic doses of 

 verbiage. Pardon me for this digression, but really when approach- 

 ing ladies as the gentleman said to the bear, " you do have to be so 

 very particular." 



Well then, this lady is a. mermaid, and her origin is shrouded in 

 considerable obscurity. Of a fair and delightful complexion, with 

 golden hair and azure eyes, with a soft cooing voice and a 

 languishing look, she sits upon a rock, gazing into her mirror, 

 combing her locks the while, and drawing imprudent mariners to 

 a closer inspection. Alas ! they do not perceive the scaly, 

 horrible coils of the lower half of her body. Fish like, and yet 

 snake like, it moves to and fro in the water, much as a cat does 

 when watching for a mouse. Nearer and nearer draws the ill- 

 fated barque, crash goes her stout stern post on the hidden rock, 

 and the sea siren with a shrill note of triumph, seizes her prey, 

 dragging down the unfortunate mariners to a deathly bridal 

 chamber in the cool green recesses of the sea-w^ashed caves on the 

 floor of the ocean bed. 



It is asserted that the dugong or the seal may have lent con- 

 siderable colour to the mermaid myth, its flippers being somewhat 

 like hands, and the tail being of the necessary shape and colour. 

 Its head also is very human-like in appearance, the eyes soft and 

 gentle, and its whole appearance tending to give sufficient basis 



