An eighty year old fisherman reported that he had seen a mermaid 'in the sea about twenty yards from the shore, sitting combing her hair on a floating herringbox used to preserve live lobsters. Unfortunately, as soon as the mermaid looked round, she realized that she had been seen, and plunged into the sea. But no questioning could shake the old fisherman's firm conviction: he was adamant that he had seen a mermaid.Back