Francis Hall, late Mayor of Elmira, is now traveling in China and Japan.—While he was waiting at Hong Kong for the vessel to sail on which he had taken passage for Shanghae, he embraced the opportunity of writing a letter, from which we are permitted to take the following description of a mermaid, which he had just seen. We had supposed the animal was a “myth” and had no existance outside of Barnum’s Museum. Mr. Hall says it is a verity:
    “HONG KONG, Sept. 26, 1859.
“I had an opportunity, by our delay, of seeing a mermaid, direct from Japan. There is something exceedingly curious and interesting about this nondescript animal. I never saw Barnum’s Fejee mermaid, which it is said came from Holland, to which place it had been imported from Japan. Hildreth, in his history of Japan, speaks of the mermaid as one of the Japanese manufactures, giving Japan as the origin of Barnum’s mermaid.—The mermaid which I saw last week was brought quite recently from Japan by Mr. King, of Hong Kong, in whose possession I saw it. It was in a glass case, that enabled me to see it with the greatest clearness, though I could not handle it. This mermaid is eighteen or twenty inches long. The fish part of the body is about the proportion of a trout that would measure that length. It has a dorsal, lateral, and ventral fin—two of the latter; and the tail is of size and shape like any of our common well known fish. Joining to the fish body, a little back of where the gills are usually situated, is the animal portion of the body, being relatively one third the whole length.
    “This animal third consists of a head, in shape, size, formation of eyes and nose, number, form and position of the teeth, like a monkey’s; of a long, slender neck; of a chest, having a sternum and several distinct pairs of ribs. It has long, ape-like arms, terminating in five fingers, of which the middle one is the longest and largest. On head and body, above the fishy portion, are here and there spots of fur remaining, like the fur of a monkey in length and texture, of a brown color. The closest scrutiny that can be given to reveal any traces of the union of the animal and fishy parts. Physiologists tell us that such a union is impossible; and of the medical and other experts who have examined this monster, some, baffled to discover by eyesight any deception, simply rest on this deception, and others admit that nothing but a dissection can really settle whether this be a most ingenious fraud or a lusus naturæ. For my own part, I must confess I can see no trick, though it may be one. it is a perfect staggerer. I should have said, in addition, that this mermaid is shortly to go to the United States. The Japanese say that it came from a lake in the interior. This is new as to their locality. During my stay in Japan I shall make this a subject of special inquiry, and procure one or more specimens, if possible to do so.

From— East Saginaw Courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.), 12 Jan. 1860. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.