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A briefe note of the Morsse and the use thereof.

IN the first voyage of Jaques Carthier, wherein he discovered the Gulfe of S. Laurence and the said Isle of Ramea, in the yeere 1534, he met with these beasts, as he witnesseth in these words. About the said Island are very great beasts as great as oxen, which have two great teeth in their mouthes like unto Elephants teeth, and live also in the sea. Wee sawe one of them sleeping upon the banke of the water, and thinking to take it, we went to it with our boates, but so soone as he heard us, he cast himselfe into the sea. Touching these beasts which Jaques Carthier saith to be as big as Oxen and to have teeth in their mouthes like Elephants teeth: True it is that they are called in Latin Boves Marini, or Vaccae Marinae, & in the Russian tongue Morsses, the hides whereof I have seene as big as any Oxe hide, and being dressed I have yet a piece of one thicker then any two Oxe or Buls hides in England . The Leatherdressers take them to be excellent good to make light targets against the arrowes of the Savages; and I hold them farre better then the light leather targets which the Moores use in Barbarie against arrowes and lances, whereof I have seene divers in her Majesties stately Armorie in the towre of London . The teeth of the sayd fishes, whereof I have seene a dryfat full at once, are a foote and some times more in length: & have bene sold in England to the combe & knife-makers, at 8 groats and 3 shillings the pound weight, whereas the best Ivory is sold for halfe the money: the graine of the bone is somewhat more yellow then the Ivorie. 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 litle lesse: and assured mee that he had made tryall of it in ministring medicine to his patients, and had found it as soveraigne against poyson as any Unicornes home.

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