I02 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



serche ye treuth and verite yairof, we have salit throw ye seis quhare 

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

 the seis is mair relevant cans of thir procreatioun than ony uther 

 thyng." 



From the circumstances attending the finding of " ane 

 gret tree that was brocht be alluvion and flux of the see to 

 land, in secht of money pepyll besyde the castell of Petslego, 

 in the yeir of God ane thousand iiii. hundred Ixxxx, and of 

 a see tangle hyngand full of mussill schellis," brought to 

 him by " Maister Alexander Galloway, person of Kynkell," 

 who knowing him to be " richt desirus of sic uncouth 

 thingis came haistely with the said tangle," he arrives at 

 the conclusion, by a process of reasoning highly satisfactory 

 and convincing to himself, that, 



" Be thir and mony othir resorcis and examphs we can not beleif 

 that thir clakis ar producit be ony nature of treis or rutis thairof, but 

 allanerly be the nature of the Oceane see, quhilk is the caus and pro- 

 duction of mony wonderful thingis. And becaus the rude and ignorant 

 pepyl saw oftymes the fruitis that fel of the treis (quhilkis stude neir 

 the see) convertit within schort tyme in geis, thai belevit that thir geis 

 grew apon the treis hingand be thair nebbis sic lik as appillis and 

 uthir frutis hingis be thair stalkis, bot thair opinioun is nocht to be 

 sustenit. For als sone as thir appillis or frutis fallis of the tre in the 

 see flude thay grow first wormeetin. And be schort process of tyme 

 are alterat in geis." 



In describing the bird thus produced, Boethius declares 

 that the male has a sharp, pointed beak, like the gallin- 

 aceous birds, but that in the female the beak is obtuse as 

 in other geese and ducks. 



According to other authors, this wonderful production of 

 birds from living or dead timber was not confined to 

 England and Scotland. Vincentius Bellovacensis * (1190- 



* For this quotation and the following one I am indebted to 

 Professor Max Miiller's Lecture before referred to. 



