210 NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 



herbal, and there he shall find that in Lancashire, 

 thousands were gathered up, adhering to the 

 broken ribs of a ship wreck'd upon that coast ; 

 but these are not like the barnicle geese that I 

 speak of : the like accident hapned in Kent some- 

 time past, and in many other parts of England, 

 &c. So that few ingenious and intelligible travel- 

 lers doubt a truth in this matter ; and the rather, 

 because if sedulously examined, it discovers a 

 want of faith to doubt what's confirmed by such 

 credible authority. But if eye-sight be evidence 

 against contradiction, and the sense of feeling 

 argument good enough to refute fiction, then let 

 me bring these two convincing arguments to 

 maintain my assertion ; for I have held a barni- 

 cle in my own hand, when as yet unfledg'd, and 

 hanging by the beak, which as I then supposed 

 of the fir-tree ; for it grew from thence, as an 

 excrescence grows on the members of an ani- 

 mal : and as all things have periods, and in time 

 drop off, so does the barnicle by a natural pro- 

 gress separate it self from the member it's con- 

 join'd to. 



But further, to explicate the method and man- 

 ner of this wooden goose more plainly : The 

 first appearing parts are her rump and legs ; next 

 to them, her callous and unploom'd body ; and 

 last of all her beak, by which she hangs imma- 

 ture, and altogether insensible ; because not as 



