Well, perhaps in those days they had not yet known
That by need of new functions new organs are grown.
Those drowned chaps were sure a 'degenerate' crew,
Or else, on their plunge into element new,
Some 'law of selection' had rescued a few.
And, 'if wishes were fishes' I think one or two
Would have wished, and swam out of their scrape, do not you?
Can it be that those 'Fish Tales' of mermen are true?
No wonder that racing was always in fashion,—
All orders of beings were born with the passion—