Some Observations on the French Macreuse, and the Scotch Bernacle; Together with a Continuation of the Account of Boyling, and Other Fountains. By Dr. Tancred Robinson Fellow of the Royal Society

Some Observations on the French Macreuse, and the Scotch Bernacle; together with a continuation of the Account of Boyling, and other Fountains. By Dr. Tancred Robinson Fellow of the Royal Society. I find so many mistakes amongst Natural Writers, and some learned Men, concerning the Bird at Paris call'd Macreuse, and in other parts of France, Macroul, or Diable de Mer, that I think it no improper subject for the entertainment of Your Curiosity. The French eat it upon Fish-days, and all Lent, thinking it to be a sort of Fish, or a Marine Animal with cold blood, or else a Bernacle generated either out of rotten or corrupted wood floating upon the Sea; or out of certain fruits falling into the water, and there Metamorphosed into a Bird; or else from a kind of Sea-shells adhering to old Planks and Ship bottoms, called Concha Anatiferæ; whereas the Bernacle (as also the Macreuse itself,) is Oviparous, and of the Goos-kind; and the shells themselves contain a testaceous Animal of their own species, as the Oyster, Cockle, and Muscle doth. Gesner himself (though the most learned, diligent, and faithfull of any that ever meddled with the History of Animals,) was lead into the first error by Gyraldus, Boethius, and Turner; Sr. Robert Moray fell into the third and last mistake Philosoph. Transact. N. 137. The learned Sr. Robert Sybbald, and Monsieur Graindorge have indeed confuted these equivocall Generations of the Bernacle and the Macreuse; yet they both make them to be the same Bird; Prodrom. Histor. Nat. Scotia; and in the Histoire des Macreuses; whereas they are of different Tribes; the Bernacle of the Goose, and the Macreuse of the Duck- Duck-kind. The many Vulgar errors concerning the Origine of these Birds, have sprung from the positive Relations of unwary Observers; and from the Writings of great men, as Munster, Olaus Magnus, Cambden, Cardan, Lesley, Julius Scaliger, Wormius, Mayerus, &c. Kircher (though credulous enough) himself, mistrusted their Relations, and fancied that the Eggs of these Birds might sometimes float from the Northern Seas upon these Coasts, and there sticking to, and hatching upon Planks, Ship bottoms, Trees (or any rotten wood,) might give occasion to the rise of the aforementioned mistakes. That the Bernacle and Macreuse are both oviparous, is beyond all doubt; the Anatomy of their parts serving for Generation; many late Voyages into the North; their laying Eggs; and sometimes breeding among us, are all evident proofs thereof. Monsieur Cattier in his traité de la Macreuse doth affirm that the French Macreuse is the greater Coot of Bellonius; and Mr. Willughby Ornitholog: p. 320, seems to be of the same opinion; there are some learned men, who think the Macreuse to be the Puffin of the Sillies, and Isle of Man; others take it for a sort of Colymbus or Mergus, Doucker or Diver; but after all the French Macreuse is of the Duck-kind, and is the Scoter, or Anas niger minor described by Mr. Ray in Mr. Willughby's Onitholog: p. 336. As the Skins of the Male and Female, together with their lively Pictures, brought lately from Paris, by that most Curious and Worthy Gentleman Mr. Charlton, do demonstrate; However for your greater satisfaction, you may consult Mr. Ray's letter, whose knowledge in the History of Animals, and of Nature in Generall, is as great and extraordinary, as it is particularly excellent in that of Plants. The Macreuse is frequently taken in nets placed under water, upon the Coasts of Normandy (most plentifully at the mouth of the Sein,) of Languedock, and Provence; and and I am confident, I have seen it upon the Laguna of Venice, at the mouths of the Breuta, Addeis, and the Po. A Duck very like unto this (if not the same,) I saw upon the Mare Mortuum, and the Lake Avernus, as also many other Water-fowl feeding upon, and flying over that water, reported by many of our own, as well as foreign Writers, to kill Birds at a distance: I observed several land Fowl to fly over that Lake, without the least disturbance, from all sides, and ends, North, South, East, and West; from towards Cuma to the Grot of the Sybill; from the mines of the Temple of Apollo, to where that of Mercury stood; But peradventure the Poysonous Steams (if there are any peculiar to that Lake,) sometimes vanish, and return again, or else may be alter'd by new Effluviums intermingled with them. When I delivered my thoughts concerning Boyling Fountains, their Varieties, and causes, I had not then time enough to mention the Burning ones, except only that near Wigan in Lancashire, with which those burning Fountains near Grenoble in Dauphine, near Cibinium or Hermanstadt in Transylvania, neer Chermay a Village in Switzerland in the Canton of Friburgh, and that not far from Cracovia in Poland, do agree in many particulars, as in being actually cold, yet inflammable and taking fire at a distance; upon the application of any lighted body; (which the Boyling springs neer Peroul will not do;) this ought to be understood of them in their Sources, because when removed from thence, neither the waters, nor their earths will produce any such Phenomena, as boyling, or flaming: It were worth the experimenting and observing nicely, what these waters, or their earths contain, or whether at any time some Naptha, or Petrolaum may not be found floating on their superficies; though I never yet heard that the surfaces of such springs, as throw up that Oily substance, would catch fire at a distance; neither is it affirmed (that I know know of,) by any writer, that any hot Boyling Fountains will take flame at a distance, as some of the bubbling cold ones do. Monsieur Boissieu hath written particularly of the burning Fountain in Dauphine. Messrs Vette & Vollgnad have given their observations on the flaming springs near Hermannstadt, but I do not remember that they made any particular Analysis of the water, Mud, Sand, Clay, or Earth, or any considerable trials upon them; I am apt to believe, that there may be Veins of the Pyrites near those places, the inflammability of which Mineral hath already been discoursed of, and made very clear by Dr. Lister, to whose papers I refer you, Philosophical Transact. N. 157. The ingenious Author of the letter from Poland, Printed in the Journal des Scavans, An. 1684; relating the History of a burning Fountain in the Palatinate of Cracovia, affirms that upon Evaporating the water a dark or Pitch-like substance may be extracted, which cures the most invertebrate Ulcers in a very short time; and that the Mud itself is very powerful against Rheumatick, and Gouty pains, Palsies, Scabs, &c. The inhabitants of an adjacent Village, drinking much of this spring, do generally live to 100 and 150 years, which he attributes to the sanative Vertue of the Water. The Naptha, or bituminous substance floating upon a spring at Pitchford in Shropshire, and upon St. Catharine's fountain near Edinburgh, hath been successfully used in Ulcerous and cutaneous distempers; many such-like Fountains of Petroleum, and oily substances, are to be met with up and down, as in the Island of Zant, very plentifully; near Gabian in the Road from Montpelier to Beziers in Languedoc; In the Valtaline subject to the Grisons; at the foot of Mount Zebio in the Dutchy of Modena, not to mention any of the places written of already by Varenius. The Inhabitants living near these fat oily springs take great care to gather and separate the bituminous substances from the water, making very considerable advantages of them, for Mechanical, and Medicinal uses; I have seen them gather it up with Ladles, and put it into large filters; or into great Funnel stoppings at the bottom, or else into Barrels let on one end, which have Spiggots near their bottoms, when they are full and have stood a while, they open the spiggot or stopper to let out the water, and when the oyl or bituminous substance begins to come, they presently stop it again; the last of which Mr. Ray did likewise observe at Gabian in Languedoc. Observ. Topograph. p. 462. Whether they make use of any of these ways in Zant, I am yet to learn, though both the learned Sr. George Wheeler and Monsieur Spon, in their excellent Voyages have described the Pitch-springs of that Island. A Letter