PLATE LVII. 



Romans of the classic age, afford us also, if this be true, an unerring 

 proof of that fondness for the marvellous with which they have too 

 frequently encumbered the truth ; and that it is to the spirit of 

 scientific research existing at this enlightened period that we are 

 indebted solely for that accurate degree of information which we now 

 possess respecting them. 



versant with the anatomy of animals as well as man, although some among 

 their number may be extremely well informed in this particular ; while, on 

 the contrary, the naturalist, ignorant of the comparative anatomy of the 

 human frame as well as animals, would be little qualified to offer a correct 

 opinion upon the subjects of his study. With due consideration for those 

 gentlemen who have perhaps too superficially and certainly too hastily 

 drawn the conclusion of its being " a genuine Mermaid" from its supposed 

 approximation to the human frame, considered anatomically, we cannot 

 avoid observing that there is no portion whatever of this object, which even 

 under its disguised form, we cannot recognize as distinct from those of the 

 corresponding parts in the human frame : it would be superfluous to specify 

 any part particularly where we pronounce the whole to be distinctly 

 different, and those who would be weak enough to reason upon its analogies 

 might, with far more propriety, pronounce a Mermaid to be a demi-species 

 of the ape tribe than any assimilation to the human frame. 



ON THE MAMMIFEROUS PORTION OF THE PRESUMED 

 " MERMAID." 



This outre deformity, including both its mammiferous and piscivorous 

 parts, is stated to be two feet ten inches in length, and seven inches and a 

 half across the shoulders. It is enclosed in a bell glass, which precludes 



marine mammalia have the bones of the fingers distinct though they are covered 

 and united by a common skin. We cannot leave this Author without observing, 

 that in this catalogue of Fishes^ he notices the Sirens of the Northern Seas: the 

 Hafstrambus and Margya of the Islanders ; for it is by these terms they affect to dis- 

 criminate the two Sexes of the Sirens, or as we express it, the Merman and Mer- 

 maid : beings,which they affirm to be inhabitants of the North Seas, and to be some 

 times seen on the Shores of the Feroe Isles. From this same writer it may be 

 collected, that the great River Cuama, at the Cape of Good Hope, and also the 

 Japan Seas, has been long celebrated for the production of these beings ; but their 

 descriptions are so much at variance, that the admirers of the marvellous may find 



