The Description.

Having travelled from the grasses growing in the bottom of the fenny waters, the woods, and mountains, even unto Libanus itself; and also the sea, and bowels of the same, we are arrived at the end of our History; thinking it not impertinent to the conclusion of the same, to end with one of the marvels of this land (we may say of the world.) The history whereof to set forth according to the worthiness and rarity thereof, would not only require a large and peculiar volume, but also a deeper search into the bowels of nature, than my intended purpose will suffer me to wade into, my sufficiency also considered; leaving the history thereof rough hewn, unto some excellent men, learned in the secrets of nature, to be both fined and refined: in the mean space take it as it falleth out, the naked and bare truth, though unpolished. There are found in the North parts of Scotland and the islands adjacent, called Orchades, certain trees whereon do grow certain shells of a white colour tending to russet, wherein are contained little living creatures: which shells in time of maturity do open, and out of them grow those little living things, which falling into the water do become fowls, which we call barnacles; in the North of England, brent geese; and in Lancashire, tree geese: but the other that do fall upon the land perish and come to nothing. Thus much by the writings of others, and also from the mouths of people of those parts, which may very well accord with truth.

But what our eyes have seen, and hands have touched we shall declare. There is a small island in Lancashire called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof have been cast thither by shipwreck, and also the trunks and bodies with the branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise; whereon is found a certain spume or froth that in time breedeth unto certain shells, in shape like those of the mussel, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour: wherein is contained a thing in form like a lace of silk finely woven as it were together, of a whitish colour, one end whereof is fanned unto the inside of the shell, even as the fish of oysters and mussesl are: the other end is made fast unto the belly of a rude masse or lump, which in time cometh to the shape and form of a bird: when it is perfectly formed the shell gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string; next come the legs of the bird hanging out, and as it groweth greater it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth, and hangeth only by the bill: in short space after it cometh to full maturity, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a fowl bigger than a mallard, and lesser than a goose, having black legs and bill or beak, and feathers black and white, spotted in such manner as is our magpie, called in some places a pie-annet, which the people of Lancashire call by no other name than a tree goose: which place aforesaid, and all those parts adjoining do so much abound therewith, that one of the best is bought for threepence. For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to repair unto me, and I shall satisfy them by the testimony of good witnesses.

Moreover, it should seem that there is another sort hereof; the history of which is true, and of mine own knowledge: for travelling upon the shore of our English coast between Dover and Romney, I found the trunk of an old rotten tree, which (with some help that I procured by fishermen's wives that were there attending their husbands' return from the sea) we drew out of the water upon dry land: upon this rotten tree I found growing many thousands of long crimson bladders, in shape like unto puddings newly filled, before they be sodden, which were very clear and shining; at the nether end whereof did grow a shell-fish, fashioned somewhat like a small mussel, but much whiter, resembling a shell-fish that groweth upon the rocks about Guernsey and Jersey, called a limpet: many of these shells I brought with me to London, which after I had opened I found in them living things without form or shape; in others which were nearer come to ripenes I found living things that were very naked, in shape like a bird: in others, the birds covered with soft down, the shell half open, and the bird ready to fall out, which no doubt were the fowls called barnacles. I dare not absolutely avouch every circumstance of the first part of this history, concerning the tree that beareth those buds aforesaid, but will leave it to a further consideration; howbeit that which I have seen with mine eyes, and handled with mine hands, I dare confidently avouch, and boldly put down for verity. Now if any will object, that this tree which I saw might be one of those before mentioned, which either by the waves of the sea or some violent wind had been overturned, as many other trees are; or that any trees falling into those seas about the Orchades, will of themselves bear the like fowls, by reason of those seas and waters, these being so probable conjectures, and likely to be true, I may not without prejudice gainsay, or endeavour to confute.

Thus saith our author. However, the barnacle, whose fabulous breed my author here sets down, and divers others have also delivered, were found by some Hollanders to have another original, and that by eggs, as other birds have: for they in their third voyage to find out the North-East passge to China, and the Moluccas, about the eightieth degree and eleven minutes of Northerly latitude, found two little islands, in the one of which they found abundance of these Geese sitting upon their eggs, of which they got one goose, and took away sixty eggs, &c. Vide Pontani, Rerum &c. Urb. Amstelodam. Hist. lib. 2. cap. 22. Now the shells out of which these birds were thought to fly, are a kind of Balanus marinus; and thus Fabius Columna, in the end of his Phytobasanos, writing piscium aliquot historia, ["the hoistopry of certain fishes"] judiciously proves: to whose opinion I wholly subscribe, and to it I refer the curious. His asseveration is this: Conchas vulgo anatiferas, non esse fructus terrestres, neque ex iis anates oriri; sed Balani marinæ speciem. ["The shells commonly called goose-bearing, are not products of the land, nor do geese come from them, but are a kind of shellfish called barnacle"] I could have said somthing more hereof, but thus much I think may serve, together with that which Fabius Columna hath written upon this point.

The Place.

The borders and rotten planks whereon are found these shells wherein is bred the Barnacle, are taken up in a small island adjoining to Lancashire, half a mile from the mainland, called the Pile of Foulders.

The Time.

They spawn as it were in March and April; the geese are formed in May and June, and come to fullness of feathers in the month after.

And thus having through God's assistance discoursed somewhat at large of grasss, herbs, shrubs, trees, and mosses, and certain excrescences of the earth, with other things more, incident to the history thereof, we conclude and end our present volume, with this wonder of England. For the which God's name be ever honoured and praised.

FINIS.