ioi NATURAL HISTORY of NO R TV A Y. 



before that the real apes differ from the creature called Quoyas- 

 Morrow, though there is in all a fimilitude of the human form) 

 I cannot fay for a certainty. However, I am apt to think there 

 is, and not without fome probability. In regard to fize at leaft, 

 they remarkably differ every where, according to our fiftiermen, 

 from the well-known fea animal called Marmale, or Marmaete : 

 This fhall be defcribed hereafter, and might feem to be a dwarf in 

 this fpecies. That mentioned above, in the paffage quoted from 

 Mr. Angel, being three fathoms long, might, in the fame manner, 

 be called a giant among the reft. 



In the year 1624 a Mer-man, thirty-fix feet long, was taken in 

 the Adriatic Sea • according to Henry Seebald's Brevjar Hiftor. to 

 this the laft-mentioned was but a dwarf. See p. 535. As to their 

 form, it is faid that fome have a fkin over their head like a 

 monk's hood, which perhaps ferves them for the fame purpofes 

 as does the Ikinny hood, which a certain fort of Sea-calves have 

 on their heads, which, from thence, are called Klap-mutzer, as 

 has been obferved in the defcription of that creature. Olaus Mag- 

 nus fpeaks, in Lib xxi. cap. 1 , of feveral monfters in the North 

 Sea, all which refemble the human kind, with a monk's hood on 

 the head. His words are, (l Cucullati hominis forma." He adds, 

 that if any of this company be catch' d, a number of them iet up 

 a howl, put themfelves in violent agitations, and oblige the filher- 

 men to let the prifoner at liberty. But this laft article is a meer 

 romance, to which this too credulous author in this, as well as 

 fome other particulars, has given too much credit, without fuffi- 

 cient grounds. Of this Mer-man with a hood Rondeletius writes 

 thus, in Gefner. de Aquatilibus, Lib. iv. which I ought not to 

 omit. IC Inter marina monftra eft & illud, quod noftra aerate in 

 Norvegia captum eft, mari procellofo. Id quotquot viderunt 

 ftatim Monachi nomen impofuerunt. Humana facie efTe videba- 

 tur ; fed ruftica &C agrefti, capite rafo & lsevh Humeros conte- 

 gebat veluti Monachorum noftrorum cucullus. Pinnas duas Ion- 

 gas pro brachiis habebat. Pars infima in caudam longam define- 

 bat. Media multo erat latior, fagi militaris figura. Hanc effi- 

 giem mihi dono dedit illuftriflima Margareta Navarrae regina, &c. 

 Ea a viro nobili effigiem hanc acceperat, qui fimilem ad Carolum 

 V. imperatorem, in Hiipania tunc agentem, deferebat. Illas re- 

 ginse affirmavit, fe monftrum hoc in Norvegia captum vidiffe, poft 

 gravifiimas tempeftates undis 6C flu&ibus in littus eje£tum, lo- 

 cumque defignabat, die Zundt juxta oppidum den Ellepoch. Ejuf- 

 dem monftri piclufam mihi oftendit Gifbertus medicus ex eadem 

 Norvegia Romam ad fe miffam ? quae picl:ura nonnihil a mea dif- 



ferebat. 



