EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 377 



River Marawina ; and Major Abercromby, of the fame fer- CHAP, 

 vice, declared, that a mermaid was lately feen in the Ri- -^^^"^ 

 ver Surinam. Lord Monboddo alfo politively affirms the 

 €xiftence of fea-women and fea-men, while he aflerts 

 that they were feen fo late as 1720. But, however re- 

 fpe6lable his lordflaip's judgment and authority may be 

 on other fubje6ls, I can no more agree with him, as to 

 men and women having fins and fcales, than to their 

 having tails. 



The plain fadt, in my humble opinion^ is this, that in 

 many rivers between the Tropics, both on the coaft of 

 Africa and South America, a filli fometimes appears half 

 above the water, that bears a diftant refemblance of the 

 human fpecies, but is fmaller, nearly fuch as in 1794 was 

 exhibited in London. The colour is of a blackifh green •. 

 the head is round, with a deformed kind of a face; a 

 ftrong fin runs from near the eyes to the middle of the 

 back, which fomething refembles flowing hair : and the 

 two fuppofed arms and hands, are two flefhy fins, or 

 rather digitated fwimmers; the female has breafls alTur- 

 edly like a woman's, being a viviparous animal ; while 

 the tail is exa6\ly that of a fiJli, in mofl: of which proper- 

 ties it agrees with the feal, but this laft has no fin along 

 the back, and is coniiderably larger, while it never ap- 

 pears ere6l above the water, like the former. The above 

 information I had from, feveral old negroes and Indians, 

 who all agreed perfectly in the defcription ; fome added, 

 that they fang, which I apprehend to be no other than a 

 .Vol. II. A a grunting 



