252 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



own day stood very high, not only repeats this 

 fable as an ascertained truth in natural history, 

 but enters into a detailed account of the meta- 

 morphosis by which the cirripod is changed into 

 a bird. The following is a passage from his 

 "Herbal " on the subject, part of which has been 

 frequently quoted by modern writers on natural 

 history : es What our eyes have seene 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 shipwracke, and also the trunks and 

 bodies with the branches of old and rotten trees, 

 cast up there likewise ; whereon is found a certaine 

 spuma or froth that in tyme breedeth into certaine 

 shels, in shape like those of the muskle, but 

 sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour, wherein 

 is contained a thing in form like a lace of silke 

 finely woven as it were together, of a whitish 

 colour, one end whereof is fastened into the inside 

 of the shel, even as the fish of oisters and 

 muskles are ; the other end is made fast into the 

 belly of a rude masse or lumpe, which in tyme 

 commeth to the shape and forme of a birde: 

 when it is perfectly formed the shell gapeth open, 

 and the first thing that appeareth is the aforesaide 

 lace or string ; next come the legs of the birde 

 hanging out, and as it groweth greater it openeth 

 the shel by degrees, till at length it is all come forth, 

 and hangeth onlie by the bill : at short space after 

 it commeth to full maturitie, and falleth into the 



