72 MAMMALIA. (Caar. I. 
description of each for the satisfaction of men of 
science. 
THE MERMAID (From Vauenryy). 
The fame of this creature having reached Europe, the 
British Minister in Holland wrote to Valentyn on the 
28th December 1716, whilst the Emperor, Peter the 
Great of Russia, was his guest at Amsterdam ; to commu- 
nicate the desire of the Czar, that the mermaid should be 
brought home from Amboina for his Imperial inspection. 
To complete his proofs of the existence of mermen and 
women, Valentyn points triumphantly to the historical 
fact, that in Holland in the year 1404, a mermaid was 
driven during a tempest, through a breach in the dyke 
of Edam, and was taken alive in the lake of Purmer. 
Thence she was carried to Harlem, where the Dutch 
women taught her to spin; and where, several years 
after, she died in the Roman Catholic faith; — “but this,” 
