Page:A description of Greenland.djvu/131

Bird, which the Norway-men call Alkes,Alkes of different Sizes. which in the Winter Seaſon contributes much to the Maintenance of the Green-

landers.

thers (in Conſideration of ſo many Authors of Credit, who affirm that they have been Eye-witneſſes to this ſtrange and wonderful Generation) have taken great Pains to demonſtrate the Cauſes and Probability of it phyſically and philoſophically, amongſt whom is the learned Father Kirkerus in his Mundus Subterraneus;Father Kirker's Opinion of Wood-Ducks. where he maintains, that the Semen of this extraordinary Generation is neither contained in thoſe old Pieces of Wood, that drive in the Sea, nor in the Muſcles originally; for a Piece of Wood cannot produce a living Animal, this exceeding the Virtue Nature has endowed it with; much leſs the Summer Froth of the Sea, which adheres to the rotten Piece of Wood, and may produce Shells or Muſcles. His Reaſoning concerning the Seed of theſe Fowls.Then he forms the Queſtion, from whence comes this Semen or Seed, which produces ſuch a ſtrange Fruit, as a living Bird? Which Queſtion he ſtrives thus to reſolve; that, whereas he has been informed by certain Dutchmen's Journals or Voyages into the Northern Seas, that this ſort of Birds, peculiar to that Climate, make their Neſt and lay their Eggs upon the Ice; when the Ice by the Heat of the Sun thaws and breaks aſunder, this innumerable Quantity of Eggs are likewiſe maſh'd and cruſh'd to Pieces, and beaten about the Waves; and that if that Part of the Egg which contains the Seed, encounters any ſubject Matter proper to foment and brood it, and is received in it loco matricis, aſſiſted by the Temperament of the Air,

the