THE ASHLAND UNION — NOVEMBER 15, 1865
Our Inverary correspondent transmits the following : One morning recently, before sunrise, a laborer setting out for his work along the shore of Lochfyne, about five miles from Inverary, saw, or imagined he saw, what is seldom seen by mortal eyes. On a smooth rock by the water’s ege [sic] was reclining a creature which, in the stuggling light, he thought to be a seal. When he approached, it splashed into the water, and as he saw its head bobbing up and down, and its long grey hair floatinz on the waves, he altered his opinion, and became convinced that it was an ancient mermaid. Unromantic wretch that he was, he began to thrown stones, to avoid which the creature moved further from the shore ; but soon, for some reason not explained, changed its purpose, and made straight again for the rock, on which it landed. The man, no doubt from the very laudable desire of furnishing the British Museum with a true specimen of a mermaid (a person could hardly send such a creature to the Zoological gardens among wild beasts,) drew a huge knife from his pocket and advanced. He had hitherto kept a respectful distance. But he suddenly stopped, for, to his amasement, the creature spoke. To hear in the early dawn a peaceful autumn morning a mermaid speak !—that surely was bliss beyond compare. Not so thought the laborer ; terror added wings to his feet, and he fled, circulating over the parish that surely his end was near, for he had seen a mermaid and heard her tongue.
