Yell Sound, Shetland (1823)

It is probable that other species [of manatees] do live in our  seas, and occasionally give rise to the reports which have appeared, in by no means a questionable shape, of Mermaids. Whether these belong to the Manatus or Rytina, must be left to future observers; but the following particulars, which have been very properly communicated, of a Zetland mermaid, captured in Yell Sound in the summer of 1823, by an intelligent naturalist, Laurence Edmondstone, Esq. surgeon, Unst. from the reports of the fishermen, here merit a place:

"The animal was about 3 feet long, the upper part of the body resembling the human form, with protuberant mammae like a woman; the face, forehead and neck, short, and resembling those of a monkey; small arms, which it kept folded across its breast; distinct fingers, not webbed; a few stiff long bristles were on the top of the head, extending down to the shoulders, and which it could erect or depress at pleasure, something like a crest. The lower part of the body like a fish; the skin smooth, and of a grey colour. It offered no resistance, nor attempted to bite, but offered a low, plaintive sound.

The crew, six in number, took it within their boat, but superstition getting the better of curiosity, and not aware of a specific numeration for carrying it to land, they carefully disentangled it from the lines, and a hook which had accidentally fastened in its body, and returned it to its native element. It instantly dived, descending in a perpendicular direction."

- "I have since seen the skipper of the boat, and one of his crew, and learned these additional details. They had the animal about three hours within the boat. The body without scales or hair, silver-grey above, whitish below, like the human skin - no gills were observed - no fins on the back or belly - tail like that of a dog-fish - very thick over the breast - by the eye, the girth mimght be between two and three feet - the neck short, very distinct from the head and shoulders - the body rather depressed  - the anterior extremities very like the human hand, about the length of a seal's paw, webbed to about an inch of the ends of the fingers - mammae as large as those of a woman - mouth and lips very distinct, and resembling the human."

These particulars are contained in two letters to Professor Jameson, dated 10th and 14th August 1823, and published in the Edinburgh Magazine for September 1823, p 346.

History of British Animals, John Fleming (1828).

by Dugald Stewart Walker