186 LECTURE XI. 



mentioned this goose-bearing shell is Gerard, the 

 author of the well-known Herbal. His account 

 runs as follows. " But what our eyes have seen, 

 and hands have touched, we shall declare. There 

 is a small island in Lancashire called the pile of 

 Fowlders, wherein are found the broken pieces of 

 old and bruised ships, some whereof have been 

 cast thither by shipwracke, and also of the trunks 

 and bodies, with the branches of old rotten trees 

 cast there likewise ; whereon is found a certain 

 spume or froth that in time breedeth unto certaine 

 shells in shape like those of a muskle, but sharper 

 pointed, and of a whitish colour ; wherein is con- 

 tained a thing in form like a lace of silk, finely 

 woven, as it were, together, of a whitish colour, one 

 end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell, 

 even as the fish of oysters and muscles are : the 

 other end is made faste unto the belly of a rude 

 masse or lumpe, which in time commeth unto the 

 shape and forme of a bird. When it is perfectly 

 formed, the shell gapeth open, and the first thing 

 that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string : next 

 come the legs of the bird hanging out, and as it 

 groweth greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, 

 iill at length it is all come forth, and hangeth only 



