THE TAZEWELL REPUBLICAN — APRIL 18, 1901
STRANGE MARINE MONSTER CAUGHT ♢ Expert Who Has Seen it
Says it is a Mermaid Toad
Newport News, Va., April 15.—Captain Buck Wyatt, who has a number of fish ponds along the beach near Bay View, captured a day or two ago one of the most peculiar marine monsters ever seen in this section. The Rev. C. B. Bryan, rector of Old St. John’s church, Hampton, who is an authority on such matters, pronounced the catch a “Mermaid Toad,” which is found only in waters south of the thirty-seventh meridian.
The fish was a complete mystery to the fishermen of this section, who had never seen one of a similar kind before. It was shaped something like a tadpole, but was four feet in length and about two feet broad. It’s mouth was shaped like that of a toad and was of the same proportion to the size of its body as is the mouth of a toad. It weighed in the neighborhood of seventy-five pounds, and when held up by the lips the whole ventral cavity could be seen. Whole fish of considerable size were in its stomach in the process of digestion. The monster had wings on both sides of its body and there were claws on its stomach resembling the hand of a ten-year-old boy—having five jointed fingers. The freak was regarded with interest and curiosity by all who had the good fortune to see it, and there is much speculation as to how a “mermaid toad” lost its bearing so far as to be caught in these waters.
Tazewell Republican. (Tazewell, Va.), 18 April 1901. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
