' CURIOSITIES OF ANGLING LITERATURE. 255 
“speaks this upon the credit of several persons that 
had seen her.” 
From her frequently attempting to “run towards 
the water,” it is evident that this young lady belonged 
to a very high class of mermaid indeed, and rose supe- 
rior to the disabilities under which her sex have been 
usually supposed to labour, as regards the organs of 
locomotion. 
We soon come, however, to one with the orthodox 
termination :— | 
“In the seas of Newfoundland is the mermaid 
which was seen by Captain Waithburn. At St. 
John’s Harbour, A.D. 1610, he spied a creature com- 
ing towards him, which in all the upper parts was 
like a woman, the hair excepted, but instead of that 
there were blue streaks very like hair round about 
the head, and as it were hung down to the neck. 
She seemed to wish to make acquaintance, but the 
captain retired from her. She came afterwards to 
the side of the boat, and attempted to come into it, 
but one of the men struck her with an oar, and made 
her tumble into the water ; another was seen by two. 
of Hudson’s men, who saw her tail, it was like the 
tail of a porpoise.” 
So much for mermaids. Then “there is the 
manati in Jamaica, having a head like an ox, his 
body long like an otter, and who has two feet like an 
elephant’s : some are about twelve yards long and four 
