30 
MAMMALIA. CETACEA. Bal.^nopteiia. 
It is probable that other species of the animals of this group do live in our 
seas, and occasionally give rise to the reports which have appeared, in by no 
means a questionable shape, of Mermaids. Whether these belong to the Mana- 
tus or Ry tina, must be left to future observers ; but the following particulars, 
which have been very properly communicated, of a Zetland mermaid, cap- 
tured in Yell Sound in the summer of 1823, by an intelligent naturalist, Lau- 
rence Edmondstone, Esq. surgeon, Unst, from the reports of the fishermen, 
here merit a place : 
“ The animal was about 3 feet long, the upper part of the body resembling 
the human form, with protuberant mammse like a woman ; the face, forehead and 
neck, short, and resembling those of a monkey ; small arms, which it kept folded 
across its breast ; distinct fingers, not webbed ; a few stiff long bristles were on 
the top of the head, extending down to the shoulders, and which it could erect 
or depress at pleasure, something like a crest. The lower part of the body like 
a fish ; the skin smooth, and of a grey colour. It offered no resistance, nor at- 
tempted to bite, but uttered a low, plaintive sound. The crew, six in num- 
ber, took it within their boat, but superstition getting the better of curiosity, 
and not aware of a specific remuneration for carrying it to land, they care- 
fully disentangled it from the 'lines, and a hook which had accidentally fasten- 
ed in its body, and returned it to its native element. It instantly dived, de- 
scending in a perpendicular direction.” — I have since seen the skipper of 
the boat, and one of his crew, and learned these additional details. They had 
the animal about three hours within the boat. The body without scales or 
hair, silver-grey above, whitish below, like the human skin — no gills were ob- 
served — no fins on the back or belly — tail like that of a dog-fish — very thick 
over the breast — by the eye, the girth might be between two and three feet 
— the neck short, very distinct from the head and shoulders — the body rather 
depressed — the anterior extremities very like the human hand, about the length 
of a seal’s paw, webbed to about an inch of the ends of the fingers — mammse 
as large as those of a woman — mouth and lips very distinct, and resembling 
the human.” These particulars are contained in two letters to Professor 
Jameson, dated 10th and 14th August 1823, and published in the Edinburgh 
Magazine for September 1823, p. 340. 
CETACEA. 
I. Palate covered with haleen. Jaws destitute of teeth. 
A. Bach furnished with a protuberance or fin. Piked Whales. 
Gen. XXIX. BAL .ENOPTERA.—Pectoral skin folded lon- 
gitudinally, and capable of being inflated. 
lu 
45. R. Musculus. Round-lipped Whale. — Margin of the i 
under hp semicircular. 
^ • • • • ■. ' 'N 
De Balsena tripinni quse maxillain inferiorem rotundam, et superiore v ' 
multo latiorem habuit, Sihh. Phal. p. 78. tab. iii — B. musculus, Linn'l'm: 
Syst. 1. 106 — Balsenoptera acuto-rostrata, Scoreshy^ Arct. Reg. i. 485; /i 
tab. xiii. fig. 2. ' | ; 
A male of this species, according to Sibbald, 78 feet in length, came ashore j 
at Abercorn, in the Frith of Forth, in September 1692. Its circumference i 
was about 35 feet. The lower jaw was 13 feet 2 inches in length. The gape ] 
large and triangular. The upper jaw was narrower, becoming pointed to- 
wards the extremity ; and was embraced by the longer and wider under jaw. i 
The tongue w'as convoluted, 15 feet 7 inches in length, and 15 feet at tha 1 
