\6 



unicorn, and the killer, or orca, otherwise called grampus — three 

 genera and four species. The common porpoise ( Phoccena com- 

 munis), perhaps the smallest of the cetaceans, yet yields (when you 

 can catch him) from three to seven gallons of oil, so it is of some 

 importance in a commercial sense. The social-whale, so called, is 

 by sailors, more generally called "blackfish." How many of all 

 these species, if any, have departed within the last fifty years I 

 have not attempted to ascertain. 



It may be in order here to refer to a creature not commonly 

 recognized as ever existent. In 1710, in the winter, some four or 

 five men claimed (and apparently made the Rev. Saml. Russell 

 believe) that they had seen, lying on a rock, off Branford, a crea- 

 ture "about 12 feet long ; the head, hair, face, neck, breast, and 

 arms, resembling a woman ; something of a tawny color. The 

 hinder part of the creature resembled a fish, of the color of a 

 mackerel, with a forked tail." The animal escaped. Instead of 

 trying to take it in out of the wintry cold, the men (so they said) 

 tried to kill it. 



If this account does not describe a mermaid, then no such 

 being ever was ; which, perhaps, is the case. 



In connection with this whole subject, one thought comes 

 prominently to my mind ; and that is this : that notwithstanding 

 the great variety in our mammalian fauna, no species in it could be 

 made available to our ancestors, for any useful domestic purpose. 

 No attempt was made either here or in other parts of our coun- 

 try, to domesticate any species native here, or in any part of the 

 United States. There was a representative (the peccary) of the 

 hog family in the southwest. The sheep family was represented 

 by the bighorn in the Rocky mountains ; and the goat, very nearly, 

 by the so-called Rocky Mountain goat. The horse did not exist 

 in America, until it was introduced from Europe. But there were, 

 perhaps, millions to represent the ox family in the buffaloes 

 (bison) ; and there were some musk-oxen. In short, our domestic 

 swine, horses, sheep, goats, asses (and of course, mules), horned- 

 cattle ; and even our cats, rabbits, and dogs, were brought from 

 Europe. The Indians (except the Eskimos) had no dogs until 

 they got them from the English. They had only wolves to rep- 

 resent the dog family ; and their cats were panthers and lynxes. 

 And all these are fast becoming extinct. Even the Red Men 

 themselves seem destined to be exterminated or to be merged in 

 other more civilized species of the genus Homo, from the Eastern 

 hemisphere. 



