PLATE LVIL 



Tulipius, and the fourth the Pigmy of George Edwards, described 

 in the gleanings of that author's Ornithology. The figures of these 



Salmo Salar in other particulars, or we miglit conceive the fish in question 

 to be of that species ; Salmo Fario, the common Trout which we have also 

 seen occasionally of considerable dimensions, is yet more remote from the 

 character of the fish under our consideration, and has only 10 rays in the 

 anal fin. If we pursue this enquiry through all the species of the Salmo 

 tribe that have been yet discovered and described, we shall find only three 

 species that have the same number of rays in the anal fin as we perceive in the 

 anal fin of the " Mermaid/' these are Salmo Oxyrinchus, a species found 

 in the Mediterranean : Salmo Maer^na, and Salmo Albula, all which differ 

 most decidedly in every other particular, and cannot be reconciled with 

 the present object. The species Eriox has 12 rays in the anal fin, and 

 S. Schaefl'eri 13, Odoe U, Wartmanni 14, S. Vimba 14, S. Leucichthys 14, 

 and S. Pidschian 16. These are the nearest approximations, so far as 

 regards the number of rays in the anal fin, but it should be added that they 

 are very distant in other particulars. Perhaps some similitude may be 

 discovered between this fish and Salmo Fredirici of Bloch, a fish that in- 

 habits Surinam, the anal fin of which however contains not less than thirty 

 rays, and does not besides accord in other respects so nearly as to be mis- 

 taken for that species. 



With an awakened curiosity we have endeavoured to trace the origin 

 of the fish to some other genus, presuming on the possibility of another 

 creature of the finny tribes having contributed this appendage towards the 

 improvement of its appearance. The dorsal fin of many fishes bear a close 

 resemblance to this ambiguous anal fin ; and it must be confessed that it 

 would be labour lost to seek for such a fin in the abdominal region of any 

 other fish, should it really prove to be a dorsal instead of anal fin that has 

 by design usurped the place of the true anal fin of the common Salmon, 

 Salmo Salar. 



Since these objections arose, an idea has occurred to mind which may 

 assist in unriddling the perplexity. Professor Lichstenstein, a Prussian 

 Naturalist of Berlin, has offered some observations upon the subject in the 

 Prussian State Gazette. He had not seen the Mermaid," and could 

 form his conclusions only from the descriptions that had been given of it 

 while at the Cape. These observations are nevertheless important, and in 

 particular so far as they relate to the piscivorous portion of this ambiguous 

 object. "To decide upon the fish part, (says the Professor,) we must first 

 know how large the scales are, and whether the fins as they stand are in 



