ioo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Kyngis nobyll grace." In this learned work the author discredits the 

 popular ideas regarding the origin of the geese. " Sum men belevis 

 that thir clakis (geese) growis on treis be the nebbis (bills). Bot thair 

 opinioun is vane. And becaus the nature and procreatioun of thir 

 clakis is strange, we have maid na lytyll laboure and deligence to 

 serche ye treuth and verite yairof, we have salit (sailed) throw ye seis 

 quhare thir clakis ar bred, and I fynd be gret experience, that the 

 nature of the seis is mair relevant caus of thair procreatioun than ony 

 uthir thyng." According to Boece, then, "the nature of the seis" 

 formed the chief element in the production of the geese, and our 

 author proceeds to relate how " all treis (trees) that ar cassin in the 

 seis be proces of tyme apperis first wormeetin (worm-eaten), and in 

 the small boris and hollis (holes) thairof growis small worms." Our 

 author no doubt here alludes to the ravages of the Teredo, or ship- 

 worm, which burrows into timber, and with which the barnacles 

 themselves are thus confused. Then he continues, the " wormis " first 

 " schaw (show) thair heid and f eit, and last of all thay schaw thair 

 plumis and wyngis. Finaly, quhen thay ar cumyn to the just mesure 

 and quantite of geis, thay fie in the aire as othir fowlis dois, as was 

 notably provyn, in the yeir of God ane thousand iii hundred lxxxx, in 

 sicht of mony pepyll, besyde the castell of Petslego." On the occasion 

 referred to, Boece tells us that a great tree was cast on shore and was 

 divided, by order of the " lard " of the ground, by means of a saw. 

 Wonderful to relate, the tree was found not merely to be riddled with 

 a "multitude of wormis," throwing themselves out of the holes of the 

 tree, but some of the " wormis " had " baith heid, f eit and wyngis," 

 but, adds the author, "thay had no fedderis (feathers)." 



Unquestionably either the scientific use of the imagination had 

 operated in this instance in inducing the observers to believe that in 

 this tree, riddled by the ship-worms, and possibly having barnacles 

 attached to it, they beheld young geese ; or Boece had construed the 

 appearances described as those representing the embryo-stages of the 

 barnacle-geese. 



Boece further relates how a ship named the Christofir was brought 

 to Leith, and was broken down because her timbers had grown old 

 and failing. In these timbers were beheld the same " wormeetin " ap- 

 pearances, "all the hollis thairof" being "full of geis." Boece again 

 most emphatically rejects the idea that the "geis" were produced 

 from the wood of which the timbers were composed, and once more 

 proclaims his belief that the " nature of the seis resolvit in geis " may 

 be accepted as the true and final explanation of their origin. A cer- 

 tain " Maister Alexander Galloway " had apparently strolled with the 

 historian along the seacoast, the former giving " his mynd with maist 

 ernist besynes to serche the verite of this obscure and mysty dowtis." 

 Lifting up a piece of tangle, they beheld the sea-weed to be hanging 

 full of mussel-shells from the root to the branches. Maister Galloway 



