Notes and Letters on the Natural History of Norfolk Part 12

wee haue one heere w^{ch} answereth their descriptions exactly b.u.t.t [_i.e._, except] only in the colour of their leggs & feet.

[127] Aldrovandus's figure of "Clangula" (head only, iii., p. 224) is too indefinite for determination. He says the feet are yellow, but Jonston, who refers to it under the name of _Anas platyrhincus_ describes it fairly well (p. 145). _Clangula ab alarum clangore_, Aldrov., _i.e._, "Rattlewings," an old name by which the Golden-eye was known to the Norfolk gunners.

Haue you a willock a sea fowl like a rook or crowe.[128]

[128] A local name for the Guillemot. Merrett says, in a letter dated 8th May, 1669, "The Clangula I know no more of than reading hath informed mee; [_see Note 127_] a willock I have seen brought from Greenland,[S] where they are said exceedingly to abound, but never thought either of them was found in England, and having not taken sufficient notice of the latter, crave your description of both."

[S] The Greenland of those days was Spitsbergen, where they would be met with by the Whalers, but in that case the bird would be Brunnich's Guillemot, a species not then differentiated.

No. IX.

[MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. MS. SLOANE 1847, FOL. 182.]

[_Fol. 182._] Sr I craue your pardon that I haue no sooner sent unto you. I shall be very reddie to do you service in order to your desires And shall endeavour to procure you such animalls as I haue formerly met with & any other not ordinary wch [shall _crossed out_] are to bee acquired. though many of my old a.s.sistants are dead. & sometimes they fell upon animalls, [not to bee _crossed out_] scarce to bee met with agayne. I wish I had been acquainted with your desires 3 yeares ago. for I had about fortie hanging up in my howse. wch the plague being at the next doores the person intrusted in my howse, burnt or threw away. The figure of the weasell Cray [_see Note 60_ and p. 82] was in a long paper pasted together at the ends & I make no question you will find it otherwise I would send another [the willick wee in _crossed out_] that fowl wch some call willick, [_see Note 128_] wee meet with sometimes.

The last I met with was taken on the sea sh.o.a.re. the head and body black the brest inclining to black headed and billd like a crowe, leggs set very backward wings short leggs set very backward (_sic_) that it move overland very badly only. it may bee a kind of cornix marina. [The latter portion very badly written and difficult to decipher.]

[_Fol. 184 verso._] That litle plant upon oyster sh.e.l.ls [_see Note 91_]

I remember I haue seen & surely is some kind of vescaria or calicularia

of what that other [was _crossed out_] electricall body was Mr.

Boyle[129] showed [_smear_] by this time more tryall hath probably been made, something of jet it might consist of.

[129] The Hon. Robert Boyle (1627-1691), although deeply learned in many branches of science, was chiefly distinguished as a chemist.

He took a leading part in the founding of the Royal Society, and was elected President in 1680, but from some conscientious scruple did not accept the office. Naturalists are deeply indebted to him, as he was "the first that made trial of preserving animals" in spirit (see Grew's "Musaeum Regalis Societatis" (London, 1681), p.

58).

I thank you that you were pleased to enquire of those German gentlemen concerning my sonne I receiued a letter lately from him he hath not been unmindfull of the R. Society's co[=m]ds & hath been in Hungaria in the mines of Gold, sylver & copper at Schemets, Cremitz & Neusol & desired mee to signifie so much to Mr. Oldenberg.

[The above is hastily scrawled; it was evidently indited to Merrett, as indicated by the reference to the German gentlemen, &c.; the date would therefore be some time in the year 1669. Wilkin prints it in the 1836 Edition, Vol. i., p. 408, but it is not in Bohn's reprint.]

APPENDIX A.

[TWO LETTERS FROM DOCTOR CHRISTOPHER MERRETT TO SIR THOMAS BROWNE, MS.

SLOANE 1830, FOL. 1 TO 3. THEY ARE BOUND UP IN INVERSE ORDER OF DATE.]

[Reply to No. 2 in the above Series.]

[_Fol. 3._] WORTHY SR,--y^{rs} of y^e 14^{th} instant I recaeved as full off learning in discovering so many very great curiosities as kindness in communicating them to mee & promising y^r farther a.s.sistance. ffor which I shall always proclame by my tongue as well as by my pen, my due resentment & thanks.

The 2 funguses [guses _crossed out and_ i _inserted_] y^w sent y^e figures off [_see Note 106_] are y^e finest & rarest as to their figure I have ever seen or read of, & soe is y^r fibula marina, far surpa.s.sing one I reacived from Cornwall much of y^e same bigness, neither of which I find anywhere mentioned. The urtica marina minor Jonst. & physalus I never met with, nor have bin informed off y^e canis charcharius alius Jonst. Many of y^e Lupus piscis I have seen, & have bin informed by y^e Kings fish monger they are taken on our coast, but was not satisfyed for some reasons off his relation soe as to enter it into my pinax, though tis said to bee peculiar to y^e river Albis [= Elbe] yet I thought they might come sometimes thence to y^r coasts. Trutta marina I haue and y^e loligo, sepia, & polypus y^e 3 sorts off y^e molles have bin found on our western coasts which shall bee exactly distinguished--As for y^e Salmons taken a bove London towards Richmond & nearer, & y^t in great quant.i.ty some years they have all off them their lower jaw as y^w observ, [_see Note 92_] & our fishermen [men _crossed out_] say they usually wear off some part off it on y^e banks or els y^e lower would grow into y^e upper & soe starve them as they have sometimes seen--y^w ask whether I haue y^e mullus ruber asper, or y^e piscis Octangularis Wormii. or y^e sea worm longer than y^e earth worms, or y^e garrulus Argentor. or y^e duck cal'd a May chit or y^e Dor hawke. The 4 first I haue noe account off y^e 2 later I know not especially by those names, wee have noe hawk by y^t name [_see Note 42_] y^r account of succinum as all y^e rest will bee registered. As for y^e Aquila Gesneri I never saw nor heard off any such in y^e Collidge for [_fol. 3 verso_] this 25 years last past. Sr y^w are pleased to say y^w shall write more if y^w know how not to bee surpurfluous--certainly what y^w have hitherto done hath bin all curiosities, & I doubt not but y^w have many more by you--I can direct y^w noe further than y^r own reason dictates to y^w. Besides those mentioned in y^e pinax I have 100 to add, & cannot give y^w a particular off them--whatever y^w write is either confirmative or additional. I doe entreat this favour off y^w to inform mee fuller off those unknown things mentioned herein, & to add y^e name page &c of y^e Author if mentioned by any or else to give them such a latin name for them as y^w have done by y^e fungi which may bee descriptive & differencing off them. Sr I hope y^e publigs [_sic_] interest & y^r own good genius will plead y^r pardon desired by

y^r humble servant

CHR. MERRETT.

_London Aug. 29. 68._

[Reply to No. 8 of the above Series.]

[_Fol. 1._] WORTHY SR,--my due thanks premised I at present acquaint y^w y^t y^w have very well named y^e Rutilus & expressed fully y^e cours to bee taken in y^e imposition of names viz y^e most obvious & most peculiar difference to y^e ey or any other sens. I am farther to say y^t y^e icon of y^e weazeling came not to my hands, pray bee pleas'd to look amongst y^r papers perhaps it might bee laid by through some accident or other [I have _added above_] y^e figures of y^r anas macrolophos, & of y^e mergi cristati [_see Note 124_] & of y^e pristis y^t which came from Cornwall was of y^e gladius, y^e name of sword fish being applied to both of them by our nation. It seemeth by y^w y^t y^e Norwich aspredo is not y^e Ceruna fluviatilis contrary to what Camden affirms, for y^e rutilus mentioned in mine to y^w differs toto coelo from y^e ceruna--The difference of y^e Elks bill by y^w signified is remarkable to distinguish it from others of its own kind. [_See_ p. 83 _supra_.]

The crackling teal seems [clearly _crossed out_] to bee y^e same which Dr Charleton[130] mentions in his Onomasticon under y^e name of y^e cracker,& showing him y^r description hee acknowledged to bee y^e same, y^e clangula I know noe more of than reading hath informed mee, a willock I have seen brought from Greenland where they are said exceedingly to abound, but never y^t [thought?] either of them was found in England, & having [not _added above_] taken sufficient notice of it y^e later, crave y^r description off both.

[130] In Charleton's "Onomasticon," at p. 99, the Cracker is called by him, _Anas caudacuta_, and is said to be the "Gaddel" of the London dealers in fowl. [_See Note 125._]

And now Sr since my last only 2 things remarkable haue come to my knowledge. The one was a cake off black amber 1/6 off an inch thick & neer a palm each way. Mr. Boyle brought it to y^e R. society to whom it was sent from y^e Suss.e.x sh.o.r.e, hee had only tryed it to its electricity & found it answer his expectation, farther tryals will be made of it.

The second is a small plant found on oyster sh.e.l.ls which when fresh did perfectly represent y^e flowers off Hyacinthus botryoides, [_see Note 91_] but y^t was somewhat longer & not so much sweld out towards its pedunculus, some of them are here inclosed. Tis doubtless a sort off vesicaria, though much different from what y^w sent mee. Most off them are now shrunk & y^e sides const.i.tuting y^e cavity come together & appear only a transparent husk. One thing more I had to add (but scarcely dare speak it out) y^t is if it would please [you _added above_] to let it bee done without y^r charge & 2ly if it might be done without y^r trouble, then I would beg off y^w to set some a work to procure mee some of those rare animals &c y^w have mentioned in your seueral Letters. My intention therein is double: first to take their descriptions & furnish our colledge with them as curiosities, all being lost by y^e fire this is onely wished but must not bee proposed without y^e former limitation by y^r too much allready obliged friend & servant

_8th May '69._

CHR. MERRETT.

I met this week with some persons off quality high Germans who lately saw y^r son & record all good things off him.

ffor Dr Browne off Norwich.

[The reply to this letter is No. IX of the above Series.]

APPENDIX B.

[MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. MS. SLOANE 1847, FOL. 56-57.]

[_See Note 51_, p. 32 _supra_.]

Praye Request Mr. Johnson to obtayne this fauor of Mr. Bacon who is unknown to mee, to afford mee his resolution to these few queries concerning the whale [wch _crossed out_] whereof I understand he had the cutting up and disposure whether there were any spermacetie found, or made out of other parts beside the head; if soe, of what parts & out of what most: and whether any out of the meere fleshie parts whether that wch runne from it about the sh.o.a.re came out of the mouth.

[_Not signed or dated._]

REPLY.

Sr in Answer to your questions conserninge the whale, I founde noe Sper[=m]e but in his heade and that after I had taken off his scalpe one tonn weight [or more _written above_] of a nexuous substance, we found in the circ.u.mference as large as a small coach wheele in the middle part certain round pieces of Sperm as bigge as a mans fist some as large as eggs and on the out side of the said rounds, flakes as large as a mans head in forme like hony combs being very white and full of oyle. And that Sp. wch was cast upon the sh.o.r.e I doe conceive came out of his nostrells. thus much ffrom him who doth remayne Sir your humble Servant, Arthur Bacon Yarmouth 10th May 1652.

BROWNE TO DUGDALE ON CERTAIN FOSSIL BONES.

["EASTERN COUNTIES COLLECTANEA," pp. 193-195].

The letter referred to in the foot-note on page 33, written by Sir Thomas Browne to Dugdale, and formerly in the possession of the late Mr. Arthur Preston of Norwich, whose collection of ma.n.u.scripts was dispersed by auction in August, 1888, was printed in a brief-lived and little-known local publication, ent.i.tled the "Eastern Counties Collectanea" (1872-3), at page 193. In this letter occurs a pa.s.sage which confirms the doubt expressed as to the Whales which had young ones after coming on sh.o.r.e at Hunstanton being Sperm Whales. They are expressly said to have been of that sort "which seamen call a Grampus," and as Sir Nicholas le Strange, in a MS. preserved in the Muniment room at Hunstanton, applies the name "Grampus" to an undoubted specimen of _Hyperoodon rostratus_ (as shown both by his description and outline sketch) which came ash.o.r.e there in the year 1700, I have little doubt that the Cetaceans in question belonged to that species and not to _Physeter macrocephalus_.