Judge Swan has received a present from a Chinese merchant of Port Townsend, says the Call, of a mermaid supposed to have been captured in the China sea. It is an ugly-looking thing and dispels the illusion of the beautiful and fascinating monster of fable. The mermaid of fiction is represented as possessing the head and bust of a lovely woman, with long flowing hair, and other characteristics of a preposessing female. Seventy-five per cent, of this remarkable creature was fish tail. So much for the poetical idea. The thing hanging in Judge Swan’s office has a hideous-looking head, little arms with webbed hands, and the remaining portion of the creature a fish.

The Anaconda Standard. (Anaconda, Mont.), 29 Dec. 1890. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.