If I Were Only In New York....

The Surprising Realities of Mythical Creatures


Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Thu May 24, 3:15 AM ET



NEW YORK—While sailing the ocean near Haiti, Christopher Columbus in 1493 reported seeing three mermaids from a distance. The Genoese explorer was not impressed.

Up close, the sea maidens were “not as pretty as they are depicted,” he wrote in his journal, “for somehow in the face they look like men.”

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