WATER FOWL. 417 



increase its value. I feel my obligations to this 

 animal every word I write ; for, however deficient 

 a man's head may be, his pen is nimble enough 

 upon every occasion : it is happy indeed for us, 

 that it requires no great effort to put it in motion. 

 But the feathers of this bird are still as valuable 

 in another capacity, as they make the softest and 

 the warmest beds to sleep on. 



Of goose feathers most of our beds in Europe 

 are composed ; in the countries bordering on the 

 Levant, and in all Asia, the use of them is utterly 

 unknown. They there use mattresses, stuffed 

 with wool, or camel's hair, or cotton ; and the 

 warmth of their climate may perhaps make them 

 dispense with cushions of a softer kind. But 

 how it happens that the ancients had not the use 

 of feather-beds, is to me surprising : Pliny tells 

 us, indeed, that they made bolsters of feathers to 

 lay their heads on ; and this serves as a proof 

 that they turned feathers to no other uses. 



As feathers are a very valuable commodity, 

 great numbers of geese are kept tame in the fens 

 in Lincolnshire, which are plucked once or twice 

 a-year. These make a considerable article of 

 commerce. The feathers of Somersetshire are 

 most in esteem ; those of Ireland are reckoned 

 the worst. Hudson's Bay also furnishes very fine 

 feathers, supposed to be of the goose kind. The 

 down of the swan is brought from Dantzic. The 

 same place also sends us great quantities of the 

 feathers of the cock and hen; but Greenland, 

 Iceland, and Norway, furnish the best feathers of 

 all : and in this number we may reckon the Eider 

 VOL iv. D d 



