The Rhode Island Republican

FROM THE R. I. AMERICAN.

The Mermaid:

The existence of this extraordinary marine animal is in a fair way of being satisfactorily proved, an intelligent Bostonian having recently purchased one at Batavia, brought thither by a Japanese, and supposed to have been taken in the Japan sea. The purchaser immediately proceeded with his curiosity for England, stopping at the Cape of Good Hope, where it was submitted to the inspection of several English Naturalists, who united in the opinion that it is an example of the Mermaid which has been generally thought to exist only in the imaginations of the wonder loving, and the beautiful fictions of poetry. The animal recently exhibited at Cape-Town, was seen and closely examined by a gentleman of this town, whose intelligence and established character are an ample pledge for the fidelity of the subjoined description, which at our request he politely furnished for publication:

Mr GODDARD,

Having read in a late Boston paper a short and rather imperfect account of an animal or fish, called the Mermaid, which has recently been exhibited at Cape-Town (Cape of Good Hope) I am induced to attempt a more particular description of this wonderful curiosity, the existence of which has so long been deemed fabulous. In furnishing you with the results of a close examination of the appearance and configuration of this wonder of the deep, I have to regret that my ignorance of anatomy prevents my giving such a technical relation as would be more satisfactory to your scientific readers.

J. S. L.

From the improper manner in which this curiosity has been preserved, it is somewhat difficult to decide what might have been its size when alive. In its present situation, it is about 18 feet in length from the tip of its tail to the crown of the head-and judging from its wrinkled, contracted state, I should presume it was a foot longer when living. The fish part is about as large as a common sized Cod-the tail is very deeply forked, near which are two fins on each side-the scales at the extremity are in size like those on the fish I have mentioned, decreasing gradually as they approach the human part, till, when they are joined to the bare skin they are only visible through the microscope. Its skin now is of a dark brown hue, but originally I should think it may have been as light coloured as that of a Mulatto. The dimensions of the head and breast are those of a well sized child of six months old. The upper part of the head is perfectly human, and remarkably well shaped indeed--so finely formed, that its forehead and crown would bear comparison with the finest of our own species. Of the lower part, or face it is more difficult to judge, from the extreme contraction which has there taken place. However, it has more the appearance of the human or Hottentot visage than that of the monkey-the eyes are of a fine shape, though now deep sunk in their sockets--the eye-brows also are delicate and handsomely curved--the nose is better formed, and not as flat as that of the common African negro-the mouth is rather large in proportion to the size of the head, and filled with very white handsome teeth, perfectly resembling the human-the two on the upper jaw, which are called tusks in the Boston paper, I consider the "eye-teeth"-they are a little longer than the others-but the projection spoken of is evidently caused by the contraction of the lips-the chin corresponds with the human, and the ear also--its hair, which is chiefly on the back part of the head, is of a light brown color, and not coarser than that of an Indian-it is thinly spread, and about three or four inches in length--the neck is short, though not more so in proportion to the body, than may be seen among the varieties of the human race the bust is that of a finely formed female, gracefully tapering to its junction with the fish-the breasts are prominent, and well proportioned to the figure-the arms are of a proper length and shape, and lightly covered with short fine hair, of nearly the same hue as that on its head-the hand is delicately formed, with long slender fingers, on which were nails as handsome as those which ornament the fair hands of any of our "belles." There is a fin on each side of the body, about three inches below the arm-pit--these are evidently placed there for the purpose of enabling the creature to maintain an erect position in the water without the aid of its arms and hands, which are thus left at liberty for defence or procuring its food. I have thus given you the best description I can of this wonder of creation, and though I view it as deciding the question of the existence of a creature uniting the human body with that of the fish, it is, in its appearance, as unlike the imaginary beautiful descriptions we have read of the Mermaid, as it is different from any other created thing I have ever seen. I will acknowledge that I have ever been an unbeliever in the existence of Mermaids, and probably nothing but the evidence of my own eyes would have changed my opinion--and even now I will not venture to assert positively, that what I have seen and handled is that long doubted "thing." Although it was most critically examined by naturalists and other scientific men, and by them pronounced to be a perfect production of nature which they called a Mermaid, still it may prove to be a deception--a thing made up. Should this be the result of further examination in England, I can unhesitatingly say, that it will be acknowledged the most wonderful instance of human ingenuity that has ever been exhibited to the world.