r to the keeping of the
Almightie. From Bristoll this 14 of September. 1591. Your Honours most
humbly at commandement. THOMAS IAMES.

IX. A briefe note of the Morsse and the vse thereof.

In the first voyage of Iaques Carthier, wherein he discouered the Gulfe of
S. Laurence and the said Isle of Ramea, in the yeere 1534. as you may
reade in pag. 250 of this present volume,(10) he met with these beasts, as
he witnesseth in these words. About the said Island are very great beasts
as great as oxen, which haue two great teeth in their mouthes like vnto
Elephants teeth, and liue also in the sea. Wee sawe one of them sleeping
vpon the banke of the water, and thinking to take it, we went to it with
our boates, but so soone as he heard vs, he cast himselfe into the sea.
Touching these beasts which Iaques Carthier saith to be as big as Oxen,
and to haue teeth in their mouthes like Elephants teeth: True it is that
they are called in Latine Boues Marini, or Vaccae Marinae, and in the
Russian tongue Morsses, the hides whereof I haue seene as big as any Oxe
hide, and being dressed I haue yet a piece of one thicker then any two Oxe
or Buls hides in England. The Leather dressers take them to be excellent
good to make light targets against the arrowes of the Sauages; and I hold
them farre better then the light leather targets which the Moores vse in
Barbarie against arrowes and lances, whereof I haue seene diuers in her
Maiesties stately Armorie in the towre of London. The teeth of the sayd
fishes, whereof I haue seene a dry flat full at once, are a foote and some
times more in length: and haue bene sold in England to the combe and knife
makers, at 8 groats and 3 shillings the pound weight, whereas the best
Iuory is solde for halfe the money: the graine of the bone is somewhat
more yellow then the Iuorie. One M. Alexander Woodson of Bristoll my old
friend, an excellent Mathematician and skilful Phisition, shewed me one of
these beasts teeth which were brought from the Isle of Ramea in the first
prize, which was half a yard long or very little lesse: and assured mee
that he had made tryall of it in ministering medicine to his patients, and
had found it as soueraigne against poyson as any Vnicornes horne.(11)

X. The voyage of the ship called the Marigold of M. Hill of Redrife vnto
Cape Briton and beyond to the latitude of 44 degrees and an halfe, 1593.
Written by Richard Fisher Master Hilles man of Redriffe.

(M56) The