me time, not one of whom dreams of a
doubt of its being a mermaid. If it were supposed that their fears
magnified its supposed resemblance to the human form, it must at all
events be admitted that there was some ground for exciting these fears.
But no such fears were likely to be entertained; for the mermaid is not
an object of terror to the fisherman; it is rather a welcome guest, and
danger is to be apprehended only from its experiencing bad treatment.
The usual resources of scepticism, that the seals and other sea-animals,
appearing under certain circumstances, operating on an excited
imagination, and so producing ocular illusion, cannot avail here. It is
quite impossible that, under the circumstances, six Shetland fishermen
could commit such a mistake."[96]

There is, no doubt, much in this account which signally distinguishes it
from all other statements with which it can be compared, except that of
Hudson's sailors, with which it well coincides. The protuberant mammae,
resembling those of a woman; the human, or at least simian face,
forehead, and neck, and especially the mouth and lips; the distinct
unwebbed fingers; the erectile crest of bristles; the nature of the
surface,--without scales or hair; the colour; and the tail,--like that
of a fish;--are all very remarkable points; and unless we conclude the
entire story to be a lie, a mere barefaced hoax,--must necessarily
indicate a creature of which scientific zoology knows absolutely
nothing.

It is observable that, here again, the tail is said to have been piscine
and heterocercal, "like that of the dog-fish:" while the naked skin, and
the colour--silvery grey above and white below,--will well agree with
the characteristics common to the smaller _Squalidae_.

It is a pity that an account like this, avouched by six witnesses, was
not thoroughly sifted. I have no doubt that, if a person tolerably
conversant with zoology, and accustomed to the habit of
cross-examination, had examined these six eye-witnesses _separately_,
making full notes of what each could remember to have observed, and had
then checked each deposition by all the others, a mass of testimony
would have been accumulated that would in an instant have convinced any
candid inquirer what measure of truth lay in the story. Points in which
the whole six, or even three or four, agreed, might unhesitatingly have
been set down as correct: suggestive questions, (not, however,
suggesting the sort of answer,