Why is it that we hear nothing of the mermaid in our day? Is it true that it has become extinct; that the voice of the siren no longer heard where it once led the unwary on treacherous shores; that sailors, wedded to the belief that it has its home in the sea, now search in vain for this curious creature? The prudent man hesitates to give a definite answer, for less than fifty years ago a school of mermaids was seen on the coast of Scotland, sad it is but sixty years since the last catch was made. Still there is the fact that in our day no mermaid has been seen. This has led to the belief that, like the dodo, the roc, the dragon and centaur, it is a thing of the past.     Even denies that the mermaid ever had an existence, and holds that the creature, half fish, half human, sprang from the brain of some wiseacre, who told stories and spun yarns for the marines. But the horse of Eocene Europe was “something between a Shetland pony and a pig, with three separate hoofs on each, of its feet,” and the semi-human man of the Miocene age encourages the belief that the connecting link between man and the ape may yet be found, perhaps in some fastness in the interior of Africa ; indeed, some travelers claim that in, that land of dark forest there is a tribe of dwarfs, human in aspect but wearing tails. And who has not laughed over the circumstantial stories connected with the sea serpent? Yet, if report speaks true, Prof. Baird has faith in that wily creature, and knows no reason why he should doubt its existence.     Unfortunately, we have no living specimen of the mermaid, and no dried ones, for that matter, other than those that have come to us from Japan ; but what more have we of the dodo than the drawing in the British Museum? and if we reject the dragon, of which we have literally nothing but effigies, we throw discredit on the Scriptures—the words put into the mouth of David, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, to say nothing of the great red dragon that has so large a place in Revelation. We have no such high authority for the existence of the mermaid during the years that it had a place in the fauna of Europe ; but many interesting narratives of its habits, both at large and in captivity, have come down to us, without taking into account what Pontopidan, that vivacious writer, has to tell his readers. And these narratives are the more interesting in that there are hardly any two of them alike—evidence conclusive that the narrators used their own eyes, and tried to describe what they saw, or thought they saw, when brought face to face with such a fairy-like creature, combing its hair, and surveying itself in a tiny mirror while poised on its scaly tail on the crested waves of an unfrequented shore; for if the creature chanced to be a merman, the impression was quite different.     There was an extraordinary catch of this kind in the days of Kine John—a merman, taken on the coast of Suffolk, where it was kept in conticement for a time. The body of the creature above the waist (for all below was covered with scales) was hairy, but the crown of the head was bald, which aided much to its human aspect. “He would not, or could not, utter any speeche, although to trye him they hung him up by the heels (rudimentary heels, probably) and miserably tormented him,” But he slept well when left alone, ”and would gette him to his couche at the setting of the sunne, and rise again when it rose.” Through a great piece of imprudence one day they allowed him to bathe in the sea, first taking the precaution to stretch three nets across the mouth of the haven that he might not escape ; but, diving to the bottom, he came up outside of the nets, and was given up for lost; in which, however, they were mistaken, for “he came to them againe of his own accorde, and remayned with them two months after.”
    A merman was taken in the same locality in the time of Henry II, and was “ kept by Bartholomew de Glainville, custodian of the castle of Oreford, by the space of six months or more. He spoke not a word. Oftentimes he was brought to church, where he showed no tokens of adoration. At length, when he was not well looked to, he stole away to the sea, and never after appeared.”
    But captured mermen have not always been so irreverent. A Father of the Society of Jesus, returning to Rome from India, reported that during his travels he had seen “ a seamen adorned with an episcopal mitre.” It did not bear its confinement well, and having been let loose it made its way down to the sea ; but ” before it finally disappeared it turned and bowed in thanks for its liberty.”
    As a general thing the mermaids captured proved to be far more devout when brought into the church than merman. In 1403 a mermaid taken in a lake in Holland, “ thrown thither forth of the sea,” was carried into the city of Haerlem, where she “ suffered herself to have garments upon her, and admitted the use of bread, milk and similar articles of diet. Also she did learn to spin, and to do many things after the manner of women ; also she did devoutly bend the knees to the image of Christ crucified, being docile in all things of which she was commanded of her master ; but living there many years she always remained mute.” Stories are told of other mermaids that became quite domesticated and made themselves useful about the house, although, owning to the singular formation of their lower member, and the absence of feet, their movements on land were necessarily constrained, and were at times awkward.     In 1761 two girls on the island of Noirmoutiers came upon a strange form in a grotto. When discovered it was leaning upon its hands, surveying its face in the water. One of the girls, nothing daunted, struck a knife into the creature, which, wounded, groaned audibly. It had the breast of a full-chested woman. The chin was adorned with a beard formed of shells, and over the whole body there were tufts of similar shells—probably goose barnacles. The tail was that of a fish, and on it there was an excrescence that was neither a foot nor a fin, but which no doubt served some useful purpose.     Numbers of baby mermaids have been caught. One seen sporting with its mother on the coast of New Spain was taken alive and kept in a tub of water for several days, when it died for want of proper nourishment. This specimen, when examined by the Royal Academy of Science at Paris, was pronounced very childlike in the upper part of the body ; but the fingers were webbed, and “the hair on its head was rather coarse and more weedy than that of an infant.” Of other merchildren interesting accounts have been preserved. Of two taken on the shore of the Isle of Man one died of the injuries it had received, but the other lived and seemed quite contented in, a tub of water. Its skin was of pale-brown color, the scales were tinged with violet, and the hair, or what was taken for hair, was of a greenish cast. Its mouth was very small and delicately shaped, and although, it had no teeth, it fed with avidity on shell fish, and drank freely of milk and water, which it sucked through a quill, showing that it had learned to feed from a bottle.     A tiny merchild, scarcely two feet in length, caught in 1759, was exhibited that year at the fair st St. German. It was very active in the vessel in which it was kept, fed freely on bread or small fishes, and while feeding looked earnestly at the spectators—a peculiarity that was variously interpreted by those who watched its movements. Although a female, the features were ugly, the skin was harsh, the ears large, and the tail was covered with the regulation scales.
    The coast of Scotland, in the early part of the present century, was very good fishing grounds for mermaids, and had it been worked properly some fine specimens might have been captured. As it is, we are not without evidence of good catches in that quarter. Elizabeth Mackay, daughter of Rev. David Mackay, was     In her account of one that she and her cousin saw in 1809; The face of the pretty creature was round and plump ; the nose was small, the eyes a light blue, and the cheeks a bright pink. The hair, “of a greenish oily cast,” way very abundant, and at times the waves washed it about the creature’s face in a manner to annoy her ; nor was this the only thing that caused her annoyance, for a bird hovered about her head, as though disposed to light there, which kept her waving her long and slender arms and well proportioned but webbed hands to baffle its efforts. This was on the 25th of May, and on the 9th of the following June a schoolmaster, one William Munro, of Truros, saw a mermaid that resembled the above. He had the advantage of seeing the figure more exposed, for she was seated upon a half-submerged rock, engaged in the only known occupation of mermaid—that of combing her brown locks, which fell in waves over her rounded shoulders. But her eves were gray and not blue, which raised a doubt whether it was the same mermaid that Miss Mackay had seen some days before. When the creature saw that she was observed by the schoolmaster she modestly slipped down into the water.     The Glasgow Philosophical Society took up Miss Mackay’s published letter, and, after discussing it, applied to her father for confirmation of what she had stated, and to know it he could give any further particulars ; to which he replied that, to the best of his knowledge and belief, the mermaid, as described, had been seen by members of his family.
    In 1811 a mermaid was seen at Kintyre, on the coast of Scotland, and those who witnessed its movements thought proper to make affidavit of what had come under their observation. In some respects their account is unique. The upper part of the creature had all the characteristics of a well formed and well-grown mermaid, but the scaly tail, of a brindle or reddish-gray color, widened out at the extremity into the form of a fan, twelve or fourteen inches in width, which kept up a tremulous motion save and except when it was folded up, and then it remained quiescent, but for a short time.     Claimed much of its attention, and after a while it sailed away and was lost to sight. On the same coast, in 1827, a young man was attracted to a cavern by a screeching noise, and on looking in was startled at the sight of a number of figures staring at him from the water—figures half fish, half human, with large beaming eyes, streaming hair, and long and slender arms and hands. At him they stared, but only for a moment, and then disappeared. The following day he discovered five mermaids, old and young, in the same place; the adults sleeping on the rocks and the young playing in the water.     Caight is the Gull of Sauchio, Ægean sea, in 1774, was exhibited in London in a dried state. Its neck was well shaped, its breast was full, or apparently had been ; the ears, which were like eel’s ears, were, placed like human ears ; the hair’an unusual occurrence—was scanty, and the creature seemed to rely, for the chief ornament of its head, on a membrane or fin that arose from the temples and formed a pyramidal topknot. From the waist down it was essentially the figure of a cod-fish, save that it had three sets of fins, so placed as to enable it to sit erect in the water. Edmund Burke is said to have expressed the opinion after examining this specimen, that it was the veritable thing. The Rev. Dr. Phillips, a representative of the London Missionary Society at Capetown, had an opportunity.
    IN 1822, owned by Captain Eades, on board of an American ship bound for Boston. Captain Eades said he had paid $5,000 for it, and that he had been offered double that sum for it. It had been caught by some Chinese fishermen, who sold it for a trifle, and each time that it had changed hands it had been bought at an advance. Dr. Phillips, after a careful examination, found that its teeth were very regular, eight incisors, four canine, and eight molars, the canine like those of an ape or a well-grown dog. There were other points of resemblance to an ape or a baboon : “ But from what I saw,” concludes the gentleman, “I have no doubt that it has clavicles—an appendage belonging to the human subject, which baboons are without, and this is strong reason that this is not a made up affair.”
    Captain Eades took his prize to London in the ship Lion, where Dr. Reese Price, a gentleman distinguished for his scientific attainments, said that “ the introduction of the animal into this country will form     In conclusion he adds : “When examining this singular phenomenon, what excited my astonishment most was the external covering for the chest upward to be such an exact representation of that of the human being, while the whole of the body below was enveloped with the scaly covering of a fish.”
    Mermaids do not appear to have favored the American coast, yet one would suppose that they would have found the Gulf Stream a delightful place for their gambols. Of a mermaid that was once discovered in the harbor of St. John, Newfoundland, we have an entertaining account. It was seen by Captain Richard Whithourne, who described it in his book of voyages, a pamphlet published in London in 1622. The Captain was standing by the river side, when it came swiftly swimming toward him, and looked cheerfully up in his face. “It was like a woman by the face, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, arms, neck, and forehead, and in those parts as well proportioned.     It had many blue streaks, resembling hair, but certainly it was not hair.” As it approached the Captain drew back, for fear that it might spring upon him, which he thought was its intention, whereupon it turned and swam away, looking back as it did so, and then he had an opportunity to see its back, which was “as square, white and smooth as the back of a man, and from the middle to the hinder part it was pointing, in proportion like a broad-headed arrow.” Captain Whitbourne’s mermaid, finding that she could not lure him, swam away to a boat in which there were a number of men, one of whom, William Hawkbridge, the Captain’s servant, who after wards became master of an Indiaman [East India Company ship], said the mermaid “put both its hands upon the boat, and did strive much to come into him and divers other in the boat, whereat they were afraid and one of them struck it a full blow on the head, whereby it fell off from them and came to other boats in the harbor.” The mermaid was not captured, and of course there was no opportunity to inspect it closely, and I cannot find that any other living specimen was ever seen on this side of the Atlantic.—[New York Post].

Sacramento Daily Record-Union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]), 12 Aug. 1882 Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.