the following quotation from Steller is adduced: Mr Steller saw on the coast of America a very singular animal, which he calls a Sea-Ape. It was five feet long; the head was like a dog's; the ears were sharp and erect, and the eyes large; there was on both lips a sort of beard. The form of its body was thick and round, being thickest near the head and tapering to the tail, which was bifurcated, and the upper lobe was the longest; the body was covered with thick hair, grey on the back, and red on the belly. Steller could discover neither paw nor foot. It was full of frolic, and played a thousand monkey tricks; sometimes swimming on one side, sometimes on the other, of the ship, looking at it with great amazement. It would come so near the ship, that it might be touched with a pole; but if any one stirred, it would immediately retire. It often raised one-third of its body out of the water, and stood erect for a considerable time; it then suddenly darted under the ship, and appeared in the same attitude on the other side; and it would repeat this manœuvre thirty times together. It would frequently bring up a sea plant, not unlike a bottle gourd, which it would toss about and catch again in its mouth, playing numberless fantastic tricks with it."* This is not the place to trace the history of this alleged animal, which was more familiarly, we do not say more accurately, known in the days of Steller than at the present time. Elian gives a description of • Pennant's Quad. vol. ii. p. 301. the Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of Sir B. Harwood:-"In carnivorous quadrupeds the structure of the bones in the nasal cavity is more intricate than in the herbivorous, and is calculated to afford a far more extensive surface for the distribution of the nerve. In the Seal this conformation is most fully developed, and the bony plates are here not turbinated, but ramified as shown in the woodcut. Eight or more principal branches arise from the main trunk, and each of these is afterwards divided and subdivided to an extreme degree of minuteness, so as to form in all many hundred plates. The olfactory membrane, with all its nerves, is closely applied to every plate in this vast assemblage, as well as to the main trunk, and to the internal surface of the surrounding cavity, so that its extent cannot be less than 120 square inches in each nostril. An organ of such exquisite sensibility requires an extraordinary provision for securing it against injury, and Nature has supplied a mechanism for the purpose, enabling the animal to close at pleasure the orifice of the nostril."* • Roget, Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 402. GROUP II. THE HERBIVOROUS CETACEA. Of the fabled nymphs, 'tis foolishly declared They chase the warrior shark, the cumbrous whale, OUR declining space prevents us from saying more on the classification of this small and interesting group than what has already appeared in the Introduction. Though individuals belonging to it exist in large herds in many quarters of the globe, yet, till within a few years, not one had been seen in the civilized world, nor had any correct description or delineation been supplied. And yet the most intense interest was experienced regarding the family, not only by the man of science, but by the public at large. There can be no doubt that in many instances they formed the type of those ideal objects of ancient poetry, the tritons, half men and half fish, who had power, forsooth, to calm the stormy surge, and probably, too, of the syrens, those sea nymphs whose melody charmed the entranced voyager to his destruction! The fancies of the northern nations were not less imaginative. "Beneath the depths of the ocean, an atmosphere exists adapted to the respiring organs of certain beings resembling, in form, the human race, who are possessed of surpassing beauty, of limited supernatural powers, and liable to the incidents of death. They dwell in a wide territory of the globe far below the region of fishes, over which the sea, like the cloudy canopy of our sky, loftily rolls, and there they possess habitations constructed of the pearly and coralline productions of the ocean. Having lungs not adapted to a watery medium, but to the nature of atmospheric air, it would be impossible for them to pass through the volume of waters that intervenes between the submarine and the supramarine world, if it were not for their extraordinary power of entering the skin of some animal capable of existing in the sea. One shape they put on is that of an animal human above the waist, yet terminating below in the tail of a fish; and thus possessing an amphibious nature, they are enabled not only to exist in the ocean, but to land on the shores, where they frequently lighten themselves of their sea dress, resume their proper shape, and with much curiosity examine the nature of this upper world."* But we must endeavour to give our readers a nearer view of these wondrous creatures. Not many years ago the Wernerian Natural History Society (and to its praise we tell it) publicly offered a prize of considerable pecuniary value to the individual who would first present them with one of these far-famed animals; and by many this offer was regarded as a proof of weakness and credulity. Not long afterwards, however, the following statements appeared in one of the periodicals of the day, for the general truth of which, from personal knowledge of some of the parties, we can vouch. "A short while ago it was reported that a fishing boat, off the island of Yell, one of the Shetland group, had captured a mermaid by its getting entangled in the lines!! The statement is, that the animal was about three feet long, the upper part of the body resembling the human, with protuberant mammæ like a woman; the face, forehead, and neck, were short, and resembling those of a monkey; the arms, which were small, were kept folded across the breast; the fingers were distinct, not webbed; a few stiff long bristles were on the top of the head, extending down to the shoulders, and them it could erect and depress at pleasure, something like a crest. The inferior part of the body was like a fish. The skin was smooth, and of a grey colour. It offered no resistance, nor attempted to bite, but uttered a low plaintive sound. The crew, six in number, took it within their boat, but superstition getting the better of curiosity, they carefully disentangled it from the lines, and a hook which had accidentally fastened in its body, and returned it to its native |