) as, "Had the creature so and so, or so
and so?" could not have received the same reply from all the deponents,
without being worthy of credence: even the points on which they would
have differed might themselves have been instructive to an intelligent
inquirer. I do not know that any such precautionary measures were
resorted to in this case, and the tale must remain as we get it; but I
make these observations for the purpose of suggesting, in the event of
any similar occurrence, the advantage of _separate_ examination in
getting at the truth. On a review of the whole evidence, I do not judge
that this single story is a sufficient foundation for believing in the
existence of mermaids; but, taken into combination with other
statements, it induces a strong suspicion that the northern seas may
hold forms of life as yet uncatalogued by science.

[87] _Geog. and Classif. of Animals_, 249.

[88] _Egypt and Mehemet Ali_, ii. p. 322.

[89] _Japan and her People_, p. 193.

[90] See Hibbert's _Shetland Islands_, p. 566.

[91] Miss Sinclair's _Shetland_.

[92] Notes to _The Lord of the Isles_.

[93] _Hudson the Navigator_, by Asher, Voy. ii.

[94] _Voyage towards the South Pole_, p. 143.

[95] Pontoppidan's _Nat. Hist. of Norway_, p. 154.

[96] _Edinburgh Magazine_, vol. xiii.

IV.

THE SELF-IMMURED.

Turning from reputed beings of which the very existence is the subject
of doubt, let us consider one or two well-known and homely creatures,
about which a certain degree of romantic interest hovers, because
conditions of life are attributed to them by popular faith, which the
general verdict of science denies.

One of the most remarkable examples in this category of _dubitanda_, is
the oft-repeated case of Toads and similar animals found inclosed within
the solid wood of living trees, or even within blocks of stone, with no
discernible communication with the external air, or at least no aperture
by which they could have entered their prison, yet, in every instance,
alive. That insuperable difficulties stand _a priori_ in the way of our
believing in such conditions, no one familiar with animal physiology can
deny; for, as Mr Bell observes, to believe that a Toad inclosed within a
mass of clay, or other similar substance, shall exist wholly without air
or food, for hundreds of years, and at length be liberated alive and
capable of crawling, on the breaking up of the matrix,--now become a
solid rock,--is certa