520 A DESCRIPTION OK 
to certain destruction among the rocks that bordered the 
dangerous coasts which they inhabited, near the shores of 
Italy. 
The belief in the existence of Mermaids has been cur- 
rent at different periods, but naturalists are of opinion 
that beings, . answering the description given of them, 
would be inverting the order of nature, and therefore can- 
not exist. 
A creature said to be a dried Mermaid was exhibited in 
London about the year 1828 ; but it was afterwards dis- 
covered- to be the body of a monkey artfully attached to 
the dried tail of a salmon. 
THE KRAKEN. 
THIS creature is another fabulous inhabitant of the sea. 
It is said to be three or four miles in breadth, and to live 
generally at the bottom of the sea, on the Norway coast. 
When it moves the commotion of the sea is so violent that 
it upsets boats and even small ships ; and when it comes 
to the surface, it is generally mistaken for an island. 
THE DOLPHIN. 
THIS is the Dolphin of heraldry, and as fabulous an ani- 
mal as any here mentioned, as may be seen by comparing 
