vane. And becaus the nature and procreatioun of thir clakis
is strange, we have maid na lytyll laboure and deligence to serche ye
treuth and verite yairof, we have salit (sailed) throw ye seis quhare
thir clakis ar bred, and I fynd be gret experience, that the nature of
the seis is mair relevant caus of thair procreatioun than ony uthir
thyng." According to Boece, then, "the nature of the seis" formed the
chief element in the production of the geese, and our author proceeds
to relate how "all treis (trees) that ar casein in the seis be proces
of tyme apperis first wormeetin (worm-eaten), and in the small boris
and hollis (holes) thairof growis small worms." Our author no doubt
here alludes to the ravages of the Teredo, or ship-worm, which burrows
into timber, and with which the barnacles themselves are thus
confused. Then he continues, the "wormis" first "schaw (show) thair
heid and feit, and last of all thay schaw thair plumis and wyngis.
Finaly, quhen thay ar cumyn to the just mesure and quantite of geis,
thay fle in the aire as othir fowlis dois, as was notably provyn, in
the yeir of God ane thousand iii hundred lxxxx, in sicht of mony
pepyll, besyde the castell of Petslego." On the occasion referred to,
Boece tells us that a great tree was cast on shore, and was divided,
by order of the "laird" of the ground, by means of a saw. Wonderful to
relate, the tree was found not merely to be riddled with a "multitude
of wormis," throwing themselves out of the holes of the tree, but some
of the "wormis" had "baith heid, feit, and wyngis," but, adds the
author, "they had no fedderis (feathers)."

Unquestionably, either "the scientific use of the imagination" had
operated in this instance in inducing the observers to believe that in
this tree, riddled by the ship-worms and possibly having barnacles
attached to it, they beheld young geese; or Boece had construed the
appearances described as those representing the embryo stages of the
barnacle geese.

Boece further relates how a ship named the Christofir was brought to
Leith, and was broken down because her timbers had grown old and
failing. In these timbers were beheld the same "wormeetin"
appearances, "all the hollis thairof" being "full of geis." Boece
again most emphatically rejects the idea that the "geis" were produced
from the wood of which the timbers were composed, and once more
proclaims his belief that the "nature of the seis resolvit in geis"
may be accepted as the