I found this article here
news.independent.co.uk...
But you have to pay to see the rest of the article, so I didn't bother. Has anyone else heard of this? Or have a copy of the rest of the article?
" March 26 2005
An 'attack' in Sydenham is just the latest sighting of an alien Big Cat on these shores. Paul Sieveking goes on the trail of the strangest creatures
to have been spotted across Britain
THE BENBECULA MERMAID
In 1830, people were harvesting seaweed at Sgeir na Duchadh on the Outer Hebridean island of Benbecula, when a woman saw a small human-like creature
splashing in the sea a few feet away. Boys threw stones and one struck the creature, apparently scoring a fatal blow, because a few days later its
body was washed ashore two miles away.
"The upper portion of the creature was about the size of a well-fed child of three or four years of age, with an abnormally developed breast," wrote
Alexander Carmichael in his encyclopædia, Carmina Gadelica. "The hair was long, dark, and glossy, while the skin was white, soft, and tender. The
lower part of the body was like a salmon, but without scales."
The local sheriff ordered a coffin and shroud, and the body was buried above the shore where it was found"
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