PLATE LVII. 



relations and traits of authentic information which can alone assist us 

 in the developement of their history. The obscure intimations of 



men in this country whom he deemed competent to decide upon its merits. 

 These observations having been widely circulated in the continental papers, 

 can have scarcely failed to excite an expectation which it is believed has 

 not been gratified. Neither those naturalists whom he names, nor any 

 other of our own country, having to our knowledge oflfered a scientific ex- 

 planation of the subject, and since it is therefore possible that silence may 

 be interpreted into an acquiescence in its favour, we are inclined to 

 dissipate any such conclusion. 



So many circumstances have contributed to raise this object to con- 

 sideration, that we can scarcely be surprised at the celebrity it had ac- 

 quired. To say nothing of the curiosity naturally excited by the very con- 

 siderable sum of money expended by the proprietor in its purchase, we 

 should consider the concurrent testimony of the medical practitioners who 

 saw it at the Cape, and who conceiving that they beheld in it " a much 

 nearer resemblance to the human frame than any of the ape tribe," were 

 induced to conclude it must be an intermediate link between the human 

 race and the tribes of fishes, or, in a single sentence, the compound being 

 so long the theme of popular delusion — " the Mermaid."* 



* A morning's visit to this object of popular curiosity never failed to prove a 

 source of much amusement. We have occasionally, and indeed not very unfrequent- 

 ly met v^^ith gentlemen of some consideration in the medical profession discussing 

 the various points of its similitude to the human frame, and lamenting that the pro- 

 prietor vi^ould not permit, at least at the present, the anatomical investigation of its 

 internal structure ! After this, it may be naturally conceived that the observations 

 of the visitors generally were decidedly influenced in its favour; and that they afford- 

 ed rather an evidence of their good-nature than of their discrimination. The manual 

 put into the hands of strangers had boldly pronounced that " the question of its au- 

 thenticity was at rest," and it was believed, " The philosopher and the naturalist 

 (they were told) could no longer dispute it," and they gave credit to the assurance: 

 *' Every doubt (they said) had vanished, and the most sceptical mind must be con- 

 vinced of the fact by the examination of the object before their eyes." Perhaps it 

 might be heard in whispers, this is a strange-looking creature, — and so badly pre- 

 served or perhaps some lady might venture to enquire whether the true Mermaid 

 «ttght not to have webs between the fingers ;— butno one seemed to distrust its authen- 



