The Jet found on the Norfolk coast differs considerably from the Whitby Jet, and Mr. Reid, "Geology of the Country Round Cromer" (p. 133), believes that in all probability it was originally derived from Lower Tertiary beds under the North Sea, a few miles from the present coast. Mr. Savin estimates the average annual find of Jet near Cromer at from ten to twenty pounds.
The doctor does not display his usual acumen when he rejects the "ancient" opinion as to the vegetable origin of Amber, see _Pseudodoxia_, book ii., chap. iv.; also letter from Earl of Yarmouth to T. B. (Wilkin Edit. i., p. 411).
Sr I receaued your courteous Letter and with all respects I now agayne salute you.
The mola piscis is almost yearely taken on our coast [_see Note 58_] this [last _crossed out_] year one was taken of about 2 hundred pounds wayght diuers of them I haue opened & haue found many lyce sticking close vnto thier gills whereof I send you some.
In your pinax I find onocrotalus or pellican [_see Note 25_] whether you meane those at St. James or others brought ouer or such as haue been taken or killed heere I knowe not. I haue one hangd up in my howse wch was shott in a fenne ten miles of about 4 yeares ago and because it was so rare some conjectured it might bee one of those which belonged vnto the King & flewe away.
Ciconia rarò hue aduolat. I haue seen two [_see Note 14_] one in a watery marsh 8 miles of, another shott whose case is yet to bee seen. [See Appendix D.]
Vitulus marinus. _In tractibus borealibus et Scotia_ [_see Note 53_]. no raritie upon the coast of Norfolk at a lowe water I haue knowne them taken asleep vnder the cliffes. diuers haue been brought vnto mee. our seale is different from the Mediterranean seale. as hauing a rounder head a shorter and stronger body.
Rana piscatrix I haue often known taken on our coast & some very large [_see Note 59_].
Xiphias or gladius piscis or sword fish wee haue in our seas [_see Note 55_]. I haue the head of one which was taken not long ago entangled in the Herring netts the sword aboue 2 foot in length.
Among the whales you may very well putt in the spermacetus [_see Note 51_] or that remarkably peculiar whale which so aboundeth in spermaceti. about twelve years ago wee had one cast up on our shoare neer welles wch I discribed in a peculiar chapter in the last edition of [_Fol. 41_] my pseudodoxia epidemica. another was diuers yeares before cast up at Hunstanton. both whose heads are yet to bee seen.