hardly extinguish flames and it is easily 〈…〉 that are washed in it are quickly dryed 3. 〈…〉 as Britanny and France hotter V. The Sea is not onely salt but bitter therefore it is 〈…〉 called Mare than Sâ—â—um VI. The salt and bitternesse of the Sea iâ— from a subterraneal 〈…〉 fire 1. Bitumen is perceived so bitter in taste that it may be known to be the first subject of it 2. Bitumen hath great force to cause iâ— salt and bitter taste The bituminous Lake of Palestina is so salt and bitter that no Fish is bred in it it scours cloaths if one wet them and shake it well out 3. Pliny reports that a bituminous water thaâ— is also salt at Babylon is cast out of their Wells into salt Piâ—â— and is thickned partly into Bitumen partly into Salt VII A salt Exhalation proceeding froâ—â—hose Deâ—pâ— iâ— easily divided by the body of the Sea For as fine flower or 〈…〉 thing else casâ— into 〈…〉 boyling liquor is cast from the place that boyls unto other parts 〈…〉 on one side to the other if in the middle to the circumference 〈…〉 bituminous Exhalation from thence where it boyleth most and the Sea is most hot is cast and dispell'd into the whole body of it So 〈…〉 Artic. 5. Of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea ANother great miracle of Nature is the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea When the Philosopher sought for the cause of it hâ— grew desperate Possidonius in Strabo l. 3. Geograph makes 3. Circuits of the Sea's motion The diurnall monethly and yearly The first is when the Moon is risen above the Horizon but one sign of the Zodiack or is gone down under the Horizon then the Sea swells untill the Moon comes to the midst of the Heaven 〈…〉 it above or beneath the Earth When it declines from thence the Sea begins to retire untill the Moon is but one sign distant from the East or West and then it stops Pliny assents thus far to him that the flowing of the Sea begins about two equinoctiall hours after the rising or setting of the Moon and ends just so long before its setting or rising He determines the other to be monethly in the conjunction when he saith That the greatest and quickest returnings of the Sea do happen about the new and full Moon the mean about the Quarters of the Moon And Marriners approve this when they call it the Living Sea by reason of the great ebbings and flowings in the new and full Moons but the dead Sea in the half Moons because of the lesser and slower motions of it Possidonius addes more That one Sâ—leucus observed a Sea that was derived from the red Sea and was different from it that kept the monethly course of returning namely according to the Lunar moneth which men call periodicall For he had observed in the Moon being in the Equinoctiall signs that the Tides were equall but in the solstices they were unequall both for quantity and swiftnesse and the same inequality held in the rest so far as any of them happened â—ear to the foresaid places Lastly Possidonius saith That he learned the yearly motions from the Mariners of Gades For they say that about the summer Solstice the ebbing and flowing of the Sea increaseth much and that he conjectured the same did diminish as far as the Equinoctial and again to increase untill Winterâ— from 〈…〉 to decrease untill the spring Equinox â— and so increase again untill the Summer solstice Pliny determines the contraâ—◠〈…〉 reason of the Equinox But Patricius witnesseth That iâ— Libâ—â—â—ia in January great part of the strandâ— are naked and continue dry for some dayes The same Pliny l. â— c. 97. observes That in every eight years in the Moons 100 circumvolution the Tides are called back to their first motions and like increasings that is to say the Sun and Moon then returning to a conjunction in the same sign and degree wherein they were in conjunction eight years before But for the daily Tides there is a differeâ—â—e amongst Writers In the Sicilian Sea 〈…〉 and flowings are twice a day and twice in the night 〈…〉 in the Sinâ—s of Aegeum repeats its motion 7. times a day and sometimes is seen thrown down from the highest Mountains and so steep down that no ships can be safe there Basil iâ— Hexaemex In England at Bristoll the Ebb is daily twice and so great that the ships that were in the Sea stand dry and are twice on dry Land twice in the Sea Pitheas Massiliensis as Pliny testifies l. 2. c. 67. writes that it swâ—lls fourscore cubits higher than Britanny In the Southern part of the New World the Sea rising flowes two Leagues Ovetan summ c. 9. But in a certain Northern Sea there iâ— no flowing or ebbing observed by the waves of it Petrus Hispan p. 5. c. 1. Not far from Cuba Promontory and by the shores of Margaret Island and Paria the Sea flowes naturally nor can ships by any means though they have a prosperous gale sayl against the floods nor make a mile in a whole day Petrus Martyâ—â—â—n sum Indiae In the Adriatick Sea formerly there was wont to be a very great flowing forth early in the morning the Sea being so advanced into the Continent that it went as far up as a strong man could run in a day Procop. l. 1. Belli Gothici â—ut singular was that Tide and a wonder of the World which in particular which proceed from whirlepools by which the waters are suckt up and spued out again by turns It is very probable this happens in Charybdis the Syrtes and Chalcydis about Eubaea This represents a true flowing and comes from winds breaking forth of the Caves of the Earth and forcing forward the waters or to the Waves running back again and sinking down But the fourth is 〈…〉 true ebbing and flowing which runs neither Eastward nor Westward but begins from the Navel of the Sea and that boyls up and as the waters rise thus they are powred forth toward the Banks more or lesse as the cause is more or lesse violent unlesse something hinder the cause whereof we shall seek last of all And true it is that Marriners in the straights of Magellan where the South Sea is seperated from the North by a notable difference marking diligently the Tydes of both Seas have observed what they could not do in the vast Ocean namely that both Seas do not begin to flow at the same time And that it is not moved by any outward cause not from the Heavens nor is it brought in from the East or West but comes from the bottom of it and boyles out from thence the superfluity running toward the Land variously as the swelling is great or small the shores high or low and the cause that moves it from the bottom upwards weaker or stronger This is confirmed by the nature of the water which casts up from the bottom whatsoever it sucks in if it be not
upper parts being the sharpest they take hold of the ends of the weeds and are fast shut in the broader parts which afterwards open that the fruit may come out to flye Thus a thousand at least of these shell fish are fastned to the weeds at the ends which as I said are fastned to the pitcht Wood with the other end in such plenty that the Wood can hardly be seen yet those weeds do hardly exceed 12 fingers breadth in length and are so strong as thongs of leather somtimes they are longer and are some-feet-long This is the whole external description For you can see nothing but a piece of a Mast full of rotten holes and Sea Weeds thrust into them having at the other end shell-fish like to the nayle of a Mans little finger But if these shells be opened those small Birds appeare like chickens in eggs with a beck eys feet wings down of their feathers beginning and all the other parts of callow Birds As the young Birds grow so do the shells or covers of them as they do in all other Oysters Muscles shell-fish snails and the like carriers of their houses It may be asked how they get their food I answer as other Zâ—ophyta do partly from the sweeter part of the water or else as shell fish that breed pearls and Oysters do from the dew and rayn partly from the pitchy fat of the rotten Wood or the resinous substance of Pitch or Rosin For these by the intermediant grass as by umbilical Veins do yeeld nutriment to these Creatures so long as that Wood is carried by the ebbing and flowing of the Sea hither and thither For were it on the dry land it would never bring forth the said shell fish An example of this we have in places neere the Sea where those shell fish are taken alwaies with black shells sticking to Wood put into the water as also to the woodden foundations of bridges and to Ships that have been sunk And they stick either to the wood by some threds like to hayrs or Mosse or else by Sea Weeds whence it is evident that some clammy moysture is afforded to shell-fish sticking to any Wood whatsoever though it be Oke but much more to firre Wood full of Rosin whereof Masts of Ships are made For this Wood is hotter than Oke and hath much aeriall clamminesse and therefore takes fire suddenly and when it is wounded while it is green it sends forth an oily Rosin but when it is dry it will easily corrupt under water but the Oke will not because it is of a cold and dry nature It longer resists corruption and under water grows almost as hard as a stone If any man will consider the abundance and diversity of fish and living Creaturs which are bred in the Seas every where he cannot but confesse that the Element of water is wonderful ferâ—ill which breeds not only the greatest living Creatures as Whales whereof some as Pliny writes l. 32. entred into a River of Arabia that were 600 foot long and 300 foot broad and that in such abundance and variety that the same Authour reckons up 176. kinds of fish in the Sea only besides thâ—se bred in Rivers But one would chiefly admire the great diversity and beauty of Sea shell-fish for I remember that I saw aâ— â—eâ—terdam Anno 1611 with Peter Carpenter a very famous man above a thousand severall kinds of them in such plenty that he had a whole Chamber full of them which he kept as the pretious treasures and miracles of nature No doubt but these are the Ensignâ— of Natures bounty for they rather serve for the ornament of the world than for mans use wherein you may see a kind of an affected curiosity in the variety of the forms of them Hence we may conclude the great fruitfulnesse of the Sea which doth exceed the Land in breeding of living Creatures and vegetable animals which the Antients observing they ascribed to Neptune who was god of the Sea great multitudes of Children begotten from divers Concubines call'd Sea-Nymphs amongst these were Tryton and Protheus whereof he sounding a shell-fish is his Father Neptunes Trumpeter but this is changed into various forms as into fire a Serpent and such like clearly teaching that the Sea breeds divers forms These causes seemed to move them who ascrib'd the generation of these Birds in the Orcades to the Sea alone as being the Authour of fruitfulnesse and of diversity of Creatures But how rightly they did that shall be seen We deny not but that many pretty shell-fishes are bred of the Sea onely from the influence of omnipotent nature so that the Ocean affords the place and matter of them but not the form and the cause efficient All the fish except a few are bred of the seed of other fish naturally and here can be no question of these Yet we may doubt whether so many kinds of shell-fish do breed from the seed of other shell-fish It is manifest of the foresaid Bird that it breeds neither from an egge as other birds do nor yet from seed Whence then From the Ocean or must the cause be imputed to the Ocean Not at all For though the place be said to generate the thing placed yet that is understood of the matrices that are the cause of generation sine quâ non but not the efficient cause much lesse the formal material and final and not concerning every generall thing containing But to search out more exactly the nature of this wonderfull Bird we will run over those four kinds of causes not doubting but having searched out these as we ought what why and from whence it is will easily be resolved The Efficient cause therefore of this generation is external heat such as the Sun sends forth into sublunary bodies as also in the internal heaâ— in the matter corrupting For without heat nature produceth no generation but useth heat as her chief Instrument whereby homogeneous things are congregated and heterogeneous are parted the parts and bowels are formed in living Creatures and are disposed in their orders and figures In Artificiall things that men make they use divers Instruments as their Hands which may be call'd the Instrument of Instruments Hammers Anvils Files Sawes Wimbles and the like In natural things there is onely Heat as the efficienâ— cause and Nature moves it as the Artificer doth them The outward heat brings the internal into Action Without which this would be uneffectual and shut up in the matter as dead as it appears in some living creatures which when Winter comes and the outward heat fails they are as it were asleep and lye as dead as Swallows Frogs Flies and such like But so soon as the Sun beams heat the water and the earth presently these little Creatures revive as owing their lives to the Suns heat And as the heat is greater so is the efficacy thereof and their flying about and crying as we see in Flies and Frogs As for
belly you shall find the true stomack of it to be alwaies empty For it takes and devours nothing by the mouth But you shall see the right intestine to swell with wan colour'd excrements If you take the young Whelp alive out of the dams belly and do not hurt him but cast him into the water you shall see him to live and swim presently Rondeletius observed the eggs to stick in the middle of the matrix toward the back bone and when they increase they are translated into both the Sinus of the matrix The forme of the eggs is like to pillows we sleep upon under our heads out of the corners there hang long and slender passages which Aristotle calls hairy pores and they are rowled up like Vine tendrels if you stretch them out at length they are two cubits long When the shell breaks the young ones come forth CHAP. VI. Of Dracunculus DRacunculus is a fish with a great head a compacted nose sticking forth a little mouth without any teeth without any opening at the gils but in the place of this above the head there is a hole on both sides wherewith it takes in and puts forth water It hath great eyes set above the head the head-bone ends at the prickles that tend to the tayl The Fins are exceeding long considering the body partly Silver part Gold colour'd Those about the Gills are Gold-coloured and Silver colour'd in the root These that are in the lower part and next to the mouth are longer than those that are next to the gils On the back two stand up the first is small Gold colour'd distinguished with Siver lines the latter is very great on the middle of the back not much unlike to butterflies wings and is made of five bones like to ears of Barley and a membrane The former bones of radii are the longer the hinder are the shorter contrary to what it is in the membrane which being as it were woven between all the distances of those radii increaseth by degrees The same also is divers for it is distinguished with Silver lines set between two black lines This is hid in the middle hollow of the back as in a sheath There is also another Golden colour'd membrane from the tail to the Podex excepting the fringes that are black CHAP. VII Of the Dolphin Exocaetus and the Fiatola THe Dolphins see so exactly that they will see a fish hid in a hole Oppianus They are so swift that Bellonius observed one of them to swim faster than a ship could run under sayle before the wind that blew strongly Some make their Fins to be the cause of it others their light body The famous Baudarcius thinks the membrane between their foreyards being extended serves them for sails They love one the other so well that one being taken at Caria and wounded a great multitude of them came to the Haven and departed again when he was set free When the Marriners whistle they will stay the longer about the ship but when a tempest riseth the credulous Greeks say if any man be in the ship that hath killed a Dolphin they will all flock thither to be revenged When then play on the calme Sea they foreshew which way the wind will blow and when they cast up water the Sea being troubled they foreshew a calme Plin. l. 8. c. 35. Thomas thinks that exhalations rising from the bottom of the Sea when a storm is at hand in Winter is the cause of it and he thinks that the Dolphins feel heat thereby and so break forth the oftner But since more fishes also perceive a tempest coming Rondeletius thinks that they are affected in the water with the motion of the ayre as those that are sick are wont to be when the South wind begins to blow Exocaetus lives long on the dry land The cause is the plenty of ayr which being he doth not draw it in too largely he is not choked by it Hence it is that an Eele will live a long time under ground Rondelet Fiatola is a broad plain fish with a taile like to a half Moon a fleshy tongue contrary to all other fish he hath no sins under his belly and he is wholly without them His Liver hath but one lap without any Gall his stomach is made like the Letter V the lower part of it ends in a point and there are so many Appendixes of hairs unto it that they cannot be numbred CHAP. VIII Of Glanis and Glaucus WRiters report of Glanis that it is a mighty and terrible fish especially in the River Tissa that runs into the Danube Hee riseth so boldly that he will not spare a Man It is publikely said in Hungaria that there was found in the belly of one a hand with rings upon it and peices of a Boy that swam in the Danube that was devoured by it Comes Martinengus Gesner saith he heard it of a learned Hungarian that the same was taken in the River Tissa it was 7 or 8 cubits long and was carried in a Cart. This had layn hid in the River 16 yeares neere the Kitchin of a Noble man at last it was caught with a hook when it had young ones to look to when she found her self taken she leaped forth the fishers ran after her two miles at last they wearied and took her and carried her to a Town called Nadlac There was in her belly a Mans head with his right hand and three Gold Rings upon it The Glaucus hath a spongy Liver distinguished into two laps the left is the larger From the right lap there hangs a little Gall bladder from a thred three fingers long so great as a pease and it hath in the bottom of the stomack a kind of Apophysis not to be seen almost in other fishes besides five others in the Pylorus that fence the stomack about CHAP. IX Of the Herring and Huso THat the Herring lives by water the Author of the Book of Nature witnesseth taken out of it it will not live as experience testifies In his belly there is nothing found for it hath onely one hungry gut They swim together in such great sholes that they cannot be taken for multitudes When they see light they swim in flocks and so they are caught in the autumnal equinoctiall They shine in the water turning their bellies upward and they send forth such a light that the Sea seems to lighten It is a miracle that some relate concerning the Inhabitants of the Island Terra Sancta of the German Ocean namely that in the year 1530 after the Virgins delivery 2000 men lived by Herring-fishing there but when they peevishly whipped one of them they had taken with rods these fishes did so diminish that afterwards scarce 100 could live by that labour The Husons have a grisle instead of a back bone that hath a great empty hole from head to tail as bored with a piercer What Aelian l. 14. c. 25. saith of the Autacea that
made a day of 36 houres Justin Martyr in Dialog cum Tryphon Some think the Sun danceth when it riseth on Easter-day and honours our Saviours Resurrection in Triumph If that be so it is necessary for it to dance a whole day because it riseth the whole day What ever this is it must be ascribed to the Ayre interposed betwixt which about the Sun rising abounds with Vapours and if at any time most in the Spring because the pores are open and it sends forth more Vapours Camer Cent. 2. Memorab p. 39. Artic. 4. Of the inequality of Dayes and Nights WHen the Sun comes to the Horizon the Day riseth with us Night comes when the Sun departs But because it moves obliquely and is girt within the bounds of both Tropicks it keeps equality under the Equinoctiall it varies which side soever it declines yet the greater it is the farther the Countries are distant from the aequator In Arabia a Province of the new World the Dayes and Nights are alwaies equall Geographers have written the same of Peru Ovetan in Summa In a Country of Africa called Gambra in the moneth of July the Night is no shorter than 11. hours The Sun riseth suddenly without dawning The Troglodites and men of Africa have but 13. hours to their longest day Strabo l. 1. They that live under the Pole of the Stars in the spring-Equinox see the Sun rising but in the Autumnall setting Mela. l. 3. c. 2. Hence it is that they have half a year day and then half a year night The Hollanders at the Straights Vaigats from the 4th day of November to the 24. day of January have found but one continual Night under the degree of 71. Boetius in the description of the Narrow Sea Vaigats In Laponia one Night lasts 3. moneths and there is in that time no more light than the Moon-shine or clear twilights afford Zigler in Laponia In the farthest part of Norway the Sun is not hid in the night In another Northern Climate the Nights are very bright at the Summer Solstice Saxo Grammaticus The Day and Night with us are equall when the Sun enters Aries and Libra they are longer when he is in the Tropick of Cancer shorter in Capricorn The moneth of June is said to contain the longest day the shortest is assigned to the 25. of December The more superstitious are perswaded that strange things are seen the night before The Olive Tree and the white Poplar and the leaves of Willowes are said to be driven about Macrob. l. 9. c. 7. The moisture in Trees ascends upwards from out of the root The Apple-tree brings forth blossoms and unripe fruit Some strings of Instruments are strook with the fingers and the other strings sound Suetonius l. 1. Ludicra Historia The small livers of Mice are increased The kernells that are shut up in Apples are turned the contrary way Cicero lib. 2. de Divinat Artic. 5. Of the Four Parts of the Year THe motion of the Sun through the Zodiack makes a Year Mathematicians make this to be twofold The one is the space in which the Sun goes from the Spring Equinox and returns to the same again and it consists of 365 dayes five hours 49 first minutes 10 seconds The other is from the time the Sun departs from the first Star in Aries and returns to the same again and it consists of 365 6 hours 9 first minutes seconds 23. Copernicus appointed this and he deserved great thanks for it Of the former there are four parts Spring Summer Autumn Winter Spring and Autumn make the Equinoxes this the Winter Equinox that the Summer They both happen when the Sun passeth the Line The most certain sign of the Springs approach is the Butterfly being a weak creature Pliny in histor Natural Cancer makes the Summer when the Sun-beams are verticall with us It is inflamed by the rising of the Dog-star saith Pliny l. 2. c. 40. yet it were more Philosophicall to say that when the Sun repeats his Journey he raiseth hot blasts and wind whence our bodies partake of great heat Truly sometimes it is extream if we credit Histories I read in Livy l. 4. Histor. That in the year of Rome 322. not onely rain from Heaven was wanting but the Earth also wanted its inbred moysture that the Rivers that run continually were almost dry that many Fountains and Rivers wanted water that the Cattel dyed for thirst In the year 1153 the Woods were fired with over-great heat the fat Earth took fire and could be extinguished with no rain Mergerius The German Records report That in 1228 the heat was so great that the Harvest was ended I will use their own words before the Feast of St. John Baptist. Lipsius cites it in his Epistles In the year 1573. the Wood of Bohemia burnt 18. Weeks The Danube was so dryed up that in many places one might foord it And what is wonderfull there was no losse in the Corn. But in 994. in the end of July the Lakes and Waters were so hard frozen that all the Fishes dyed and there was great scarsity of water Cardan thinks it is a mark of an over-hot Summer de varietat rer l. 15. c. 38. if old sheep are very much given to lust in the Spring Men write that there was so pleasant an Autumn in the year 1584. that the Roses and young branches flourished It is our Winter when the Sun enters Capricorn then all things quake are covered with Snow and bound up with Ice The Sun foreshews a most bitter Winter in the Northern parts when he hides himself in a red clowd as a pillar of fire and casts out his beams like fiery darts That descending it is turned into black Cardan l. 1. Or when things that use to be moist seem dryer or drops dripping from houses fall more slowly And sometimes the winter hath been excessive Chronicles say that in 1234. the winter was most fierce so that in the Adriatick Sea the Venetian Factors passed over the Ice with their charge of moneys Zonaras reports the like to have happened under Constantine Copronymus so in the Pontick Sea and the Straights adjoyning Marianus Scotus In the year 32. of Charles the Great there was a great and most bitter Frost so that the Pontick Sea was frozen 100 miles in the East where it was 50 cubits from top to bottom In the year 1525. the winter was so cruel that in Brabant an infinite company of Eâ—lâ—s by reason of the Ice went forth of the Lakes which is a wonderfull thing and hid themselves in Hay-ricks and perished there with extremity of cold Robertus de Monte. The Trees had hardly any leafs afterwards in May. Sometimes the winters are so calm too In the year 1225. in December the Peach Tree budded In 1186. in December and January Crowes and other birds hatched their Eggs with young But these divers parts of the year for length and duration comes from a divers position They
doth not lye upon the waters but contrarily where the Conduits are not full the lower part is not empty but the upper part IV. Nor the Bulk of the Sea Scaliger thinks that the Waters being pressed in the channels by the Sea lying upon them do seek to get forth His Example is of a stone in a vessel But two things are here assumed 1. That the gravity is every where the same as in the weight of a stone 2. That a great part of the Sea water is out of its place V. Nor yet vapours redoubled into themselves and so drawing nor the spungy Nature of the Earth nor the veins of the Earth whereby the moysture of the water may be drawn forth For 1. attracting forces would be more fit for Champion ground than for Mountains 2. If they should attract it were for that purpose that they might have the fruition of it but from whence are there such Rivers 3 The veins of waters are no where found so full as that reason requireth whether it be for blood in living creatures or for squirts VI. The water is raised out of the Caves of the Earth to the Tops of Mountains as the Sea is raised above the middle Region of the Ayr. VII But this Elevation is made by the force of heat resolving the water into vapours Aristotle himself intimates that heat is required but that water may be made of a vapour there needs no cold but a more remisse heat VIII The heat of the Earth proceeds not from the heat of the Sun namely of the Earth in its Intralls For first it can penetrate but two yards deep and therefore the Troglodites make their Caves no deeper 2. In the hottest Summer a woodden post that is but one or two Inches thick is not penetrated 3. The entralls of the Earth about 8 or 10 yards deep are found colder in Summer then in Winter IX The Antiperistasis of the cold Ayr in the superficies of the Earth is nothing to the purpose 1. It is more weak than the cold of the firm Earth 2. What ever of the Suns heat is bred within passeth out by the pores and vanisheth 3. It perisheth being besieged by both colds to which it bears no proportion X. The heat that is in the bowells of the Earth is from a double cause For in the parts nearest the superficies it proceeds from the Sun beams but in the bowels of the Earth from other causes That passeth out by the pores of the Earth in Summer being opened by the Sun and therefore it vanisheth when as being removed from its original it is weaker but in winter it is bound in by the cold XI The heat in the bowels of the Earth is known by the heat of the Waters but these are neither hot by the Sun nor from brimstone or quicklime in the conduits but only from a subterraneal fire Not from the Sun For. 1. That cannot penetrate so far 2. If it were from thence it would be most in Summer Not from brimstone or quick lime for brimstone heats not unlesse it be actually heated and quick-lime only then when it is resolved by Water Also the vast quantity of it would be resolved in a short time and would make a change in the Channels But it may be understood some ways how it may be heated by a subterraneal fire 1. As it is actuall and so the Channels being solid stone cannot derive it 2. As it is more remote but sends forth Vapours by pipes as in Baths so also not for Vapours cannot have so great force as to make it boil 3. That the Water may run amongst the burning fire as in bituminous Channels But here the question may be why it doth not cast out the Bitumen as in Samosata a City of Comagenes Pliny saith l. 2. c. 104. and 107 that a certain lake cast forth flaming mud and fire came out at the Waters of Scantium 4. The fourth way is the truth Art doth some wayes imitate Nature but in Stills the water by the force of heat is resolved into Vapours and the Vapours fly upwards to the heads where they stick and being removed from the violent heat they return to Water again so also in the bowells of the Earth XII But Fountains that boyl seem not to be of those Waters that run but that stand still Namely Wells that have formerly been opened by the quakings of the Earth which it is no wonder that they are joyned to the Sea In a small Island against the River Timevuâ— Pliny l. 2. c. 103. writes that there is a hot spring that ebs and flows with the Sea In the Gades it is contrary Pliny l. 2. c. â—2 But if any of these hot springs do runâ— we must observe of them that their Channels are so scituated that when the Sea flowes it comes unto them or if it were come into them before it powreth forth the more And so the heat of the fire will be either proportionable and the exhalation greater or not and so lesse XIII But what Agricola writes of bituminous Waters and that yeeld a smell must be ascribed to their neernesse but it vanisheth at a farther distance The same is observed in artificiall distilled waters that in time the burntness of them will vanish away XIV But because this fire by the shaking of the Earth can do much in the superficies it can then do more in the place it is It can therefore stop up old Channels open new ones in divers caves of the Earth without sending forth of the matter combustible or propagation of fire or conflict of Vapours it can rayse new fires from whence new Rivers may be produced yet somtimes also it useeth to be extinguished or sunk so deep that it cannot send its force to the superficies This is the opinion of Lydiat which we have set down more amply that being better known it might be more exactly weighed CHAP. V. Of hot Baths THe heat of hot Baths is diversly spoken of by Authours Aristotle thought it proceeded from Thunder which is false for the force of Thunder is pestilentiall any man may know it that beholds Wine corrupt by Thunder It makes men mad or dead but these are healthfull as experience daily shews Also there are many places that were never touched with Thunder for that never descends above five foot Sennert Scient natural l. 4. c. 10. thinks it comes from two waters that are cold to be felt but grow hot in their meeting from repugnancy of the Spirits as we see in oyle of Tartar and Spirit of Vitrial and in Aquafortis and Tartar and of the butter of Antimony and Spirit of Nitre all which though they are cold to the touch yet if you mingle them they grow hot and so that if you suddenly powre oyle of Tartar into Aquafortis wherein Iron is dissolved it will not only boyle but the mixture will flame which also happeneth if you pour fast the spirit of Nitre into the
the Indians use They saw a place in Aprill and May abounding with all sorts of flowers The Duke of Moscovia heard of this afterwards and triall was made but the Duke died in the interim and this noble designe was hindred It is supposed that those places are nere the Indies and therefore if the River Peisida can be overpassed the passage to Cathay and Sinae were not difficult Artic. 3. Of the depth freesing and â—oloâ—ys of the Sea COncerning the depth of the Sea there are many opinions Burgensis saith it is deeper than the Earth 〈…〉 Plin. l. â— c. 22. and Solinus c. 54 that in many 〈…〉 no borrow can be found But there speak of a certain Sea in the 〈…〉 and they speak according to their days when navigation was 〈…〉 known Priscianus reports that Julius Caesar found by his Searchers 15 furlongs others give 30. But the English Portugalls 〈…〉 who now a days use most Navigation reckon 2 Italian miles and a time Olaus Magnus l. 2. Histor. septent c. 10. weâ—â—es that at the shoâ—es of Norway it is so deep thay not open can 〈…〉 but that is by reason of the hollow shores and full of cracks every where And though there be such a wonderfull force of waters in the Sea yet certain it is that it is somtimes frozen Strabo l. c. Geograph writes that in the mouth of Maeotis so great Ice was seen that in the place that King Mithridates Generall overcame the Enemy in the Ice the same he passed over with his Fleet. When 〈…〉 four the Sea of Pontus was so frozen for a 100. â—â—les that it 〈…〉 hard as a stone and was above 30 Cubiâ—s 〈…〉 Vintent l. 〈…〉 But Olaus l. 11. c. 25 saith that in the North Sea they 〈…〉 and draw along their Engins for Warts and â—aires 〈…〉 kept The condition of the Ice there is very strange Being carried on the shore it presently thawes no man furthering it Ziglerus l. â— 8. In Islandra if it be kept it vanisheth and he affirms that some will turn to a stone The Sea hath many colours Andreaâ— Causalius saith that neer the Inhabitants of the East-Indies there is a milk 〈…〉 that is seen for 300 miles Martyr also attests the same in his Sumâ—lâ—â— That which washes the Island Cabaque is somtimes green and sometimes of the yeare red for the Shel-fish every where poure much blood Petrus Hispan The red Sea though it be so called because it is rinctured with red waters yet it is not of that nature 〈…〉 for but the water is tainted by the shores that are neer and all the land about it is red and next to the colour of blood 〈…〉 l. 13. c. 1â— The Sea useth frequently to change its colour Aulâ—â—ell noct Atâ—â—l 2. c. 30 gives the cause It is faith he observed by the best Philosophers that when the South wind blows the Sea is blewish and â—â—eyish but when the North blows it is blacker and darker c. When the Doâ— days are it is troublesome Men ascribe that to the Sun that pierceth the inward parts of the Sea with its beams and stirrs the grosseâ— parts but consumes them not But this is strange that is said that the Sea Parium in the New Word is so intangled with so many green herbs that Men cannot fall in it the long branches of herbs like nâ—ts hindring them That Sea is so like a Medow that as the Waves turn all the herbs turn with it also that the storms are lesse from the Waves than from the grasse This endangers Sea-Men and first Columbus Ovetan l. 2. c. 2. For the Ships are held by the bendings of little branches that they cannot turn It is deep enough for Galleys to row in but the herbs rise from the bottom and grow together on the top and are 15 hand-breadth higher sometimes Pliny l. 13. c. 25. reports that in the red Sea Woods flourish chiefly â—he Laurel and the Olive bearing Olives and if it rain Mushromâ—â— which when the Sun shines are converted into a Pumex-stone The sprouts themselves are 3 cubits great and are stored with abundance of dog fish that it is scarse safe to look out of the Ship and they will set upon the very oars oft times The Souldiers of Alexander that sailed from India reported that the boughs of Trees in the Sea were green but taken out of the Sea were presently changed by the Sun into dry salt Also Polâ—bius reports that in the Sea of â—ortingal Oakes grow that the Thynni fishes feeding on their Acorns grow fat Athenaeus l. 7. Artic. 4. Of the Saltnesse of the Sea THe Works of God are wonderfull in Nature but two are most wonderfull the saltnesse of the Sea and its flowing and ebbing It is said that there is an Island in the Southern Ocean that is waterâ—d by a sweet Sea which also Diodorus Siculus seems to testifie and assert concerning the Scythian Sea Pliny l. 6. c. 17. But that is ascribed to the great running of Rivers into it and how small is this in respect of the other Sea Yet Philosophers argue concerning the saltnesse of the Sea Aristotle l. 2. Meteor c. 1. calls for the nature of the Sea and efficacy of the Sun to assist him For the Sea-waters by the mixture of the ground and the shores is thicker and the Sun by its heat calls forth thinner parts and resolves them into vapours which being burnt with heat and mingled with the water cause its saltnesse Mans body will help us in this wherein the native heat dissolves the sweetest meats into the saltest humours which being collected in the Reins is cast forth by urine Experience confirms it that shews us that the Sea is more salt in Summer than in Winter and more toward the East and South than elsewhere Lydiat likes not this opinion but brings another That Youth may more exactly comprehend the sense of this brave man We will set it down here in a few Propositions I. The vehement heat of the Sun doth not boyl the Sea to be salt For 1. Why is not the same done in a little water in a bason 2. The same cause of saltnesse should work upon the subject with lesse resistance II. A hot dry earthly exhalation carried by rain into the Sea iâ— not the cause of its saltnesse For 1. Why is not the same done in Fountainsâ— 2. It is too little 3. Why is it not onely salt in the superficies but in the deep For though Scaliger Exercit. 51. denyes that saying that the â—â—â—nators have proved it to be sweet yet Patricius saith it was found otherwise in the 〈…〉 between Crete and Egypt when it was very calm Philip 〈…〉 witnesseth the same III. The Sea is salt by the mixture of something with it That is clearâ— because all tasting is oâ— mixt bodies IV. That which is mingled with the Sea hath the nature of a hot and dry exhalâ—â—ion That is apparent 1. Because the Sea is such 〈…〉 will
too heavy Hence it comes to passe that all Seas purge themselves in the full of the Moon Not that the attraction of the Moon is the cause of it but because the wind that was in the interim collected in the hollow places under ground strives to fly upwards or being heaped up about the putrefactions of the Sea breaks forth Lydiaâ— de orig sâ—ntium attributes it to subterraneal fire That you may know the grounds of his opinion I will set it down in a few Propositions I. The flowing of the Sea is not because of the Moon by the nearnesse of her light and of that especially which she borrowes which breeds exhalations whereby the waters swell and run over For in the full Moon her light is thwart the earth and yet there is a tide great enough II. The Sun and Moon do not by their beams cause the flowing of the Sea 1. When it flowes in one hemisphear and both the Luminaries are in the other what is the cause of that For it hath not equall forces in both 2. If Sun and Moon cause the flowing of the Sea wherefore elsewhere in the very Ocean and that between the torrid Zone where their power is extream are there no Tides at all or very small ones III. When we enquire concerning the flowing of the Sea we must suppose 1. That there is a wonderfull plenty of water in the bosome of the Earth 2. That water which is in the bosome of the Earth is not onely continued to it self but to this we see in the Sea and is joyned with it by the channels or open chaps of the Earth First it is probable from hence that it is a part of the same body Then the deeps of the Sea that were never yet certainly known are a token of it 3. When two most vaste Continents on this side Asia Africa Europe on that America divide CHAP. VII Artic. 1. Of the New World and Asia by which the passage was open to other neighbouring Islands and from the Island to all the continent which was in sight and neere to the Ocean but in the mouth of it there was said to be a Haven with a narrow entrance c After this by a wonderfull Earth-quake and a continuall inundation for a day and a night it came to passe that the Earth clave asunder and swallowed all those warlike people and the Island of Atlantis was drowned in the deep But Aristotle lib. de admirand c. 8. relates that in the Sea beyond Herculâ—s Pillars an Island was found out by the Carthagenians which had Woods and Rivers fit for shipping but it was distant many days Voyage But when more Carthagenians allured by the happinesse of the place came and dwelt amongst the Inhabitants they were condemned to death by the Commanders he adds by those that sayled thither Let us also hear Seneca lib. 7. quaest c. 31. The people that shall come after us shall know many things we know not many things are reserved for after ages when we are dead and forgotten The World is but a very small matter unlesse every age may have something to search for And again quaest 5. c. ult Whence do I know whether there may not be some Commander of a great Nation now not known that may swell with Fortun 's favours and not contain his forces within his own bounds Whether he may not provide ships to attempt places unknown How do I know whether this or that wind may bring Warr Some suppose Augustus extended his Empire so far Marianus Siculus is the Authour that there was found in the new World old Golden Money with the Image of Augustus and that it was sent to Rome to the Pope in token of fidelity by Johannes Ruffus Bishop of Consentia That is more wonderfull that the Spaniards write that there is a Town in the Province of Chili in the Valley called Cauten which they name Imperiola for this cause because in many Houses and Gates they found the Spread-Eagle as we see now a dayes in the Arms of the Roman Empire Animlanus l. 17. observes somthing not unlike it that in the obeliscks of the Aegyptians there were ingraven many Pictures of Birds and Beasts also of the other World What shall we say to these things We say they knew them but scarse ever travelled thither But if those relations are true that Plato reports of which Tertullian also speaks Apolg. c. 39. and Marcellinus l. 17. we add farther That the praediction of Seneca sounds rather of the British Islands in favour of Claudius That is false which is said of Augustus We have all the Acts of this Noble Prince if there be any thing buried in silence it is some mean matter But Novelty easily gains the name of Antiquity if there be fraud in him that forgeth it Artic. 2. Of the miracles of some Countrys PLiny relates and we out of him There is a famous Temple at Paphos dedicated to Venus into a Court whereof it never rayns Pliny l. 2. c. 96. By Harpasa a Town of Asia there stands a hard Rock which you may move with one finger but thrust it with your whole body and you cannot stirr it There is Earth in the City Parasinum within the Peninsula of Tauri that cures all wounds In the Country Ardanum Corn that is sowed will never grow At the Altars of Martia in Veii and at Tusculanum and in the Wood Ciminia there are places where things fastened into the Earth cannot be drawn forth Pliny l. 2. c. 94. In Crustuminum Hay that grows there is hurtfull but out of that place it becomes good Some Earths tremble at the entrance as in the Country of the Gabii not far from Rome about a 100 Acres when men ride upon it and likewise at Reate In the Hills of Puteoli the dust is opposed against the Sea Waves and being once sunk it becomes one stone that the waters cannot stirr and daily grows stronger also if it be mingled with the Caement of Cumae Plin. l. 35. c. 13. Such is the nature of that Earth that cut it of what bignesse you please and sink it into the Sea it is drawn forth a stone In a Fountain of Gnidium that is sweet in eight Months time the Earth turns to a stone From Oropus as far as Aulis whatsoever earth is dipped in the Sea it becomes a stone Tilling of the ground was of old of great esteem amongst the Romans they found one sowing and gave him honours whence is the surname Serranus As Cincinnatus was ploughing his four Acres in the Vatican which are called Quintus his Meadows Viator offered him the Dictator ship and as it is reported that he was naked and his whole body full of dust To whom Viator said Put on thy Cloths that I may deliver to thee the commands of the Senate and people of Rome Whence Pliny l. 18. c. 3. answers to this question Whence was it then they had so great plenty The Rulers at
Gesner writes that he read in a German Manuscript that if their feet be distill'd by descent and a mans hands be anointed with the oyl they will come to ones hands that they may be taken Franciscus Vallesius the first King of France kept them so tame that though they be wild by nature they would come home of themselves some say they sweat blood in Treading but Albertus confutes that CHAP. IV. Of the Horn-Owl and Aluco A Sin or Otus and a Night-Crow makes such a noise as a man doth that is chill'd with cold they cry hu hu With his cry and the bird Cyncramus he leads the Quails when they depart hence He imitates those things he sees men do Also they watch fowlers standing over against them wherefore they seem to anoint their eyes with a kind of bird-lime then they depart and leave it in the holes the Otus or Doâ—rill comes and glews his eyes together and so is he taken There are two kinds of Aluco's the greater and the lesse The greater Aluco hath this property that he winks with his eye-lid he hath no little ears like horns but in place of them he hath a kind of Crown-circle made of feathers that covers his whole face small feathers rising above his eys like a high ridge of a hair above the eye-lids and on both sides they go about by the temples and meet under the chin like a womans ketcher The lesser is found in the clifts of Oaks that the Worms have eaten hollow If he take any living creature he swallowes it whole for his throat is so wide that he will swallow bits bigger than egs nor doth he eat any meat till he have plumed the feathers and hairs and cast away the bones CHAP. V. Of a Goose. GEese in the Kingdom of Senega are of divers colours Whiter than Swans and with red heads are bred in Hispaniola Cadamust And Odoricus à foro Julii saith That in the Kingdom of Mancum in India the superiour they have a bone above their head as big as an Egge of a blood red colour and a skin hanging half way under the throat Aldrovandus thinks it is of the kinds of Onocrotalus Strabo l. 6. Geograph saith there are none in the South part of Arabia They live many years Albertus saith 60 Gratalorus 200 years But Aldrovandus writes he should not take his oath for it Gardanus thinks it not fabulous because their flesh is so sound For it is known that a Wild-Goose hung up for 3. dayes continually would not grow tender and cast to the dogs they would not eat it But amongst all kind of Geese that is the most wonderful which in Scotland they call the Soland Goose. In Descriptione Scotiae Boetius writes thus of it Above other Islands Maya of D. Hadrian is noble for the reliques of him and his fellowes who suffered Martyrdom for Christs sake A Fountain of most sweet water runs forth of a very high rock in the midst of the Sea a wonderful miracle of Nature The Fort Bass that is invincible to mans forces stands upon it and exceeds all the rest in strangenesse Also there is a Rock situate in an arm of the Sea that hath a narrow entrance a Fisherman's Boat can scarce passe into it that hath no houses made in it by art of man yet is it hollow and hath habitations as convenient in it as if men had built them But they are by this means the more forcible whatsoever is in it is full of wonderful things For those Birds which in our Mother-Tongue we call Soland Geese not unlike to those which Pliny calls Water-Eagles dwell here in abundance and hardly any where else These so soon as they come at the beginning of the Spring they do bring so much wood with them to build their nests that the Inhabitants that dwell there nor do they repine at it carry away as much as serves them for fuel a whole year They feed their young ones with the most choise fish For if they have caught one and they see a better swimming at the bottom of the Sea they let that fall and plunge themselves vioâ—â—ntly into the waters to catch the other When they have brought 〈…〉 fish to their young ones they let men take away what they please â—â—llingly and flie again to catch more Also they let the people 〈…〉 their young ones without resistance whence there accrues to 〈…〉 Governour of the Castle a mighty revenue yearly for pulling off their skins with the fat they make an oyl of them of great worth Also they have a small gut that is full of oyl of great vertue for it cures the hip and joynt Gouts so that this Bird serving for all mens use is inferiour to none but that he is not common to be had So far Boetius When I was in Scotland I smelt of them and they smelt like Herrings CHAP. VI. Of the Kings Fisher of Ducks and the Bird Emme IT is reported that the Kings-Fishers build their nests of the hardest fish bones and the sharpest thorns and are seldom seen but at Sea where the waters are salt They breed about the middle of winter Wherefore when it is a calm Winter they call it Halcyon dayes 7. dayes before the midst of winter and 7. dayes after the midst of winter In the first he makes his nest in these last he breeds Plin. l. 5. c. 8. The nest is made like a Pine-Apple or a glasse with a long neck Albert. It is so artificially made that it cannot be easily cut with a sword But Aristotle saith that if you break and bruise it with your hands and then break it with an Iron you may easily destroy it That the Sea may not enter into it she makes her hole of a spungy matter that will swell and the swelling shuts up the entrance Those that go in do presse against it and so presse out the water and find passage The Shee of them so loves the Hee that she is alwaies with him and in old age carrieth him on her back and they both die in copulation Plutarch de solert animal House Ducks are known almost to all men those of Lybia are of a middle stature between a Goose and a Duck. Their genitall member is so great as a finger is thick and five times as long and is red as blood Bellon Look on their eyes by the Sun and you shall see a black spot on the top which is in the Beaks of them Scalig. They make no noise though they have both Lungs and Wind-pipe When our Country-people would keep abundance of them let them keep two of our Ducks for each of those Drakes and so they will lay abundance of Eggs. But the young Ducks so bred will never procreate again as other living Creatures that are bred of divers kinds In Ancyra there are some that blow like a Horn as those that sound when horsemen march in orders Auger They love their liberty so well that
being kept 3. years in a Cage and fed if they can find opportunity they will flie away There is such plenty of the wild ones that they cover all the waters but they live no where but in warm Countries In the Winter that they may not be Frozen in by an instinct of nature they swim circularly and on one side they keep the waters open and cry so lowd that they may be heard When the cold grows too violent they flye aloft to the Sea Olaus l. 19. c. 6. The Hollanders brought the Bird Emme from Java it is twice as great as a Swan black and with black wings But out of two originalls there proceed two more as it is with the Ostrich It wants wings and a tongue on the top of the head it hath a buckler as hard as a Tortesse-shell like a Target It would swallow Apples as big as ones fist and lumps of Ice also burning Coles and all without any hurt Aldrovand CHAP. VII Of Barnacles THere is a bird in Britanny that the English call Barnacles and Brant Geese the Scotch call them Clakguse It is lesse than a wild Goose the breast is somwhat black the rest Asâ—-colour It flies as wild Geese do cries and haunts Lakes and spoiles the Corne. The learned question the original of it very much For some say it breeds from rotten wood some from Apples some of fruit that is like to heaps of leaves which when at the time appointed it falls into the water that is under it it revives and becomes a living Creature It grows in the Isle Pomonia in Scotland toward the North. And of this opinion is Isidore Alexander ab Alexandro Olaus Magnus Gesner Boetius and others contrarily Albertus and those that are of his mind hold that they breed by copulation The Hollanders from their own experience in Greenland affirm they found some Barnacles sitting on egs and had young ones But these things may agree together for things bred of corruption may have eggs and that seems also most clear that Boetius hath written concerning them That every man may perceive they are not fabulous I shall set it down Now it remains that we speak of those Geese which they call Clak-Geese and which commonly they think amisse to be bred upon Trees in these Islands of which we were for a long time very inquisitive and have found by experience For I think the Sea between is the greater cause of their generation than any thing else For things are bred in the Sea variously as we have observed For if you throw wood into the Sea in time Worms breed in it that by degrees have a head feet wings and lastly feathers Lastly they are as great as Geese when they are full grown they flye upward as other birds do using their wings to carry them through the ayre which is as clear as day and was seen in the yeare from the Virgins conception 1490 Many looking on For when some of this wood was carried by the Waves to the Castle Pethschlâ—ge in great quantity they that first espied it wondred and ran to the Governour and tell him this strange news The Governour came and bid them Saw the Log in sunder then they saw an infinite sort of living Creatures that were partly Worms some not formed others were and were partly birds and some of them were callow some had feathers Wondring at the miracle at the Governours command they carried that Log into the Church of St. Andrew at Tira where it yet remaines full of Worm holes as it was The like to this two yeares after was brought into Tham by the tide to Bruthe Castle many ran to see it which again two yeares after at Leith in the Harbour all Edenburgh came to see For a great ship that had the name and the ensigne of Christopher when it had been 3 whole yeares at Anchor in one of the Hebrides was brought back hither and drawn on land that part of it that was alwaies under the Sea had the beames eaten through and was full of Worms of this kind partly unformed not yet like birds and partly those that were perfect Birds But it may be some man will cavill at it and say that there is such a vertue in the boughs and stocks of Trees that grow in those Islands and that the Christopher it self was made of the wood growing in those Hebrides wherefore I shall willingly declare what I saw 7 yeares since Alexander Gallovidianus Pastor of the Church of Kilâ—y a man besides his great integrity incomparable for his care in study of wonders when he had pull'd forth some Sea weeds from the stalks and boughs and likewise from the root that grew up to the top where they joynd he perceived some shell fish-breed he frighted with the novelty of the matter presently opened them to know farther and then he wondred far more than before For he saw no flesh shut up in the shells but which is wonderful a bird Wherefore he ran presently to me whom he a long time knew desirous to know such new things and shew'd it me who was not more astonished at the sight of it as I rejoyced at the occasion to see a thing so rare and unheard of By this I think it is evident enough that these are not the seeds of breeding of Birds in fruits of roots of Trees but in the Sea it self which Virgil and Homer rightly term the Father of all things But because they saw that come to passe vvhen the Apples fell from the Trees that grevv on the shore into the vvaters that by continuance of time Birds appeared in them they vvere of that opinion that they believed the Apples vvere turned into Birds c. Thus far Boetius Reader thou may'st judge of it for my part I admire at Gods providence and at the end of this Classis by vvay of Appendix I shall add some thing out of the discourse of Majerus concerning the Tree-Bird CHAP. VIII Of the Owl and Catarrhacta THe Owl builds in the highest Rocks that sometimes it is hard to find her eggs for its young Pliny saith comes forth by the tail out of the egg because the eggs being reversed by weight of their heads brings the hinder part to be fostered by the dam. It is said That in Churches she drinks up the oyl she not onely kills Birds but Hares also A Duck hath been found in one cut open The brain of it with Goose-grease doth wonderfully joyn wounds The Catarrhacta hath a wonderful way of sitting on her eggs if that be true that Oppianus hath written She layes Sea-weed upon her eggs on a rock and so leaves them open to the winds Hence the male catcheth those eggs he thinks sit to breed the males and the female doth the like for the females then they carry them up on high with their Talons and so let them fall into the Sea doing this often they grow hot by motion and the young ones are
treads them and ratifies as it were the seed eaten Those hens that he treads not do bring eggs that are windy Olaus Magnus writes that in the Winter in the North the lesser Urogalli will lye hard under the Snow two or three moneths But in Pontus they say in Winter some Birds are found that neither boult their feathers nor do they feel when their feathers are pluckt out nor when they are thrust through with a spit but onely then when they wax hot at the fire It is hardly true The greater Grygallus is so deaf that he cannot hear the noise of a great Gun CHAP. XXXVI Of the Batt PLato calls the Bat a bird and no bird Valla half a Mouse He loves Caves and holes in the earth In the hollow placeâ— of Apenniâ—uâ— there were some thousands that lodged It brings forth the young ones ready formed when they are bred they are first like young Mice smooth and naked as young children She suckles her young ones with her milk and she casts them especially between the hollow places in Tiles or roofs of houses They stick so fast to her Teats that they cannot be pull'd off when she is dead She the second day after she hath disburden'd her self of them flies to find food but in the mean time she devours the secondines Sometimes she is bred of putrid matter Frisius saith she proceeds from a sickly excretion of the Ayr she flyes with leather wings or as Isidore saith born up with the membranes of her arms flying winding up and down and not far from the earth When she is weary she hangs by her claws the rudiments whereof they have in the middle of their wings she will fly also with two young ones in her bosome They eat Gnats Flies Bacon They will so eat a flitch that hangs by a beam that they will lye in the hollow place In hot Countries they will fly at mens faces In Dariene a Province of the New World they troubled the Spaniards in the night One of them fell upon a Cock and Hen and bit the Cock dead Martyr Pompilius Azalius saith That in the East-Indies some are so great that they will strike men passing by down with their wings The Argument of this is their carcases that lie all over the Vale. The Storks eggs grow barren if a Bat touch them unlesse she take â—eed by laying Plane-tree leaves in her nest It is killed by the smell and smoke of Ivy Aelian de animal Locusts will not flye over the place where Bats are hang'd on the Trees that lie open The biting of it is cured with Sea-water or other hot water or with hot ashes as hot as one can suffer it Strabo saith That in Borsippa a City of Babylon where they are greater than in other places they are pickled up for food So in St. John's Island they are skinned with hot water and they are made like chickens with their feathers pull'd off with us for their flesh is very white The Inhabitants of the Isle of Catigan in the Sea del Zur do eat them They are as great as Eagles and as good meat as Hens Scalig. Exerc. 236. s. 3. CHAP. XXXVII Of the Vulter THe Vulter hath filthy and terrible eyes and a space under his throat as broad as ones hand set about with hairs like Calfs hairs Bellonius l. 2. observ c. 1. He hunts after Cattell in Chyla a Province of the West-Indies and that not from Sun-rising till Noon but from Noon till Night Monard de Arom Some say that the males are not bred but the females conceive by the wind which is false for they have been seen between Worms and Augusta of Trevirs â—o couple and to lay eggs Alb. Mag. They are so libidinous that when they are kindled if the male be absent they will tread one the other and conceive by a mutuall Imagination of lust or else drawing dust by force of desire they will lay eggs When he wants his prey he will draw blood from his thighs to feed on Simocatta writes that they are great with eggs 3. years He hath an excellent sight for he will see when the Sun riseth from East to West and when the Sun sets from West to East He will smell Carrion 500 miles Aldrovand Avicenna saith That he sees the carcases from aloft but Aldrovanduâ— writes That the wind carries the sent of them to him He hath an exquisite sense to perceive He lives a hundred years If you pick your teeth with his quill it will make your breath sowr A kernel of a Pomegranate will kill him Plin. l. 30. c. 4. Aelian l. 6. c. 46. The End of the Sixth Classis AN APPENDIX TO The Sixth Classis Wherein some things are taken out of a Treatise of Michael Maierus a most famous Physitian concerning the Bird that growes on Trees WHen one shall read that there is a place in the World where Geese grow on Trees like Apples perchance he will be doubtfull concerning the truth of it and question the Authour And if any man shall say that living Creatures are bred not onely of one but of divers kinds from Trees and vegetables that part will fly and part will not fly hâ— will have enough to do to make good what he sayes if he would not be accounted a Lyar. Yet I think it may be easily proved by what we have said already where we have asserted from experience that Gnats are bred in Okes and mosse of Okes and Worms are bred in other Trees and Vegetables which though they be small creatures yet are they reckoned in the number of living creatures because they feel and move Yet I should not affirm the first as the words sound For Birds make their nests sometimes in Trees hedges bryars and other vegetables but that they grow there like pears is incredible There is one of the Canary Islands called Ferro where is a Fountain of sweet water concealed and there is none besides in the whole Island in some Trees by a wonderfull Indulgence of Nature the leaves do draw abundantly water out of the Earth or Ayr which they drop down for the Inhabitants to drink For should they want this boon no men nor Cattell could live there for there are no Fountains but the Ocean or salt-water runs round about it The great bounty of God hath afforded water to those to whom it is denyed in other considerations As in Egypt where there never falls any rain Nilus overflowes to supply that defect and other Countries have other gifts given them So also is this bird afforded to the Isles of the Orcades and other neighbouring places which is found no where else Yet should any man look to find him growing on the Trees he might wander all the Woods over and find none nor yet do Pyrats amongst the Ferrenses find water but are forced to leave the Country for want of it nor can they find it in the Trees Concerning this bird that is no Fable that
upon the others back then the first brings up the rear when he is weary and would refresh himself By nature they conquer Serpents For by strong sucking in their breath they will draw them out of their holes and then devoure them After this Banquet they bathe themselves and eat Crevish Then they weep and their tears are turned to Bezar stones They die if they drink before they have done this Gesner CHAP. XI Of the Dog THere are many wonderfull things in a Dogg his manner of birth quick sent biting docile nature fidelity and the like The puppies are borne blind the more they suck the slower they are to see but commonly in 7 days if they see quickly but 20 days is the longest time Some say if one Whelp be littered he will see in 9 days if two in ten and so it is if there be more each addeth a day of blindnesse to the time Lastly one bred of the first litter of a Bitch will see soonest The best of the puppies is that which sees last or which is first puppyed Albertus writes that he saw a Mastiff that first littered 19 then 18 then 13 at one time He hath a sent so quick that he will never eate Doggs-flesh be it never so well seasoned to deceive him In Scotland there is a kind of them that will persue a theif and if he passe over a River they will swim over after him and when they come on the other side they will hunt about to find his foot-steps and still follow him Gesner A mad Doggs biting is wonderfull Venemous and deadly He runs mad about the Dogg days with the Tooth-ach he is cured if he eate Hellebour with Barley flower and Vomit it up again the pisse of a mad Dogg trod upon hurts extreamly those rhat have an Ulcer and it is observed that their wounds will increase by treading on it that were ever bitten by any Dogg They will cause Hens eggs to grow addle and Cattel to miscarry A man had a wound in his Arme that after 12 yeares that he was bitten became sore again and he died in two days Albert. Fear of water first troubles such as are bitten and which is the greater wonder after 7 years it may shew it self One thought that he was cured being washed with Sea water yet after some months by touching of the Dogg-Tree-Wood he fell into a relapse Gesner Also in their Urine Doggs heads are said to appeare As for their docilenesse and fidelity there are many examples The Dog of Francis Marquis of Mantua would call his servants They will draw Coaches carry burdens in Ibissibur a Countrey of Tartary Lipsius Cent. 1. had a Dogg at Lovain that would carry letters so far as Brussels ad Belg. Epist. 44. and he would bring letters back from thence A Dogge at Brussels would carry money to the Shambles and fetch â—ome meat â—e fought with other Doggs upon the way and when he was beaten he laid hold of a peice The Dogs at Rhodâ—s knew Christians from Barbarians Gabelâ—n Histor. A certain Mountebank in the time of Justinian the Emperour had a Dogg that would take up many Rings cast down and restore every man his own he would tell you by pulling them by the cloaths which was a Wife a Widow or a Maid Lastly in Plutarch there was one that would represent a Man that was poysoned We read of the wonderfull fidelity of Dogg in Scaliger his Exercitations I will set it down in his own words and upon his own reputation A Courtier envying the credit of a certain friend of his or carried away with some other malice came suddenly upon him and killed him and after buried him in a place besides the way The party slain had at the same time a Hound with him who lay a long while upon his Masters grave Hunger for that time overcoming love he returns home and being seen without his Master by some other friends who thought the dog had been strayed from him they bade that some meat should be given him Having let down a few morsels he returns to the grave Which course he continued so often that the friends of the dead began to suspect and at last believed that the Dog sought for his Master They follow him and coming to the place where the earth was cast up dig into it find the body take it away and cause it to be buried in another place The solemnities ended the dog keeps with them whom he had led to this discovery A good while after the Murtherer comes again to the Court the Dog knows him and begins to run at him with great cryes and so earnestly pursueth his point upon him that suspition begins to enter into the minds of a great many that there was some evill in the man The dog continuing still to vex him the King was at last advertised of the case who commanded that the man should be straitly examined touching the fact He affirmeth himself innocent The dog when the Murtherer denyed that he knew what was become of the Dogs Master never left barking and bawling insomuch as all that were present took the same as a disproof that the dog made against him Well the matter proceeded so far that the King ordered it should be decided by a Combat between the man and the dog To make short the dog had the day and the Combat is painted and finely set forth in the Hall of a certain Castle in France and the work wearing out with age hath sometimes been renewed by Commandement from the King It deserveth saith the Lord de la Scale to be set forth in pictures of brasse that it may never perish But to close up this Discourse we will adde hereunto that which James Micyllus a learned Poet hath written in praise of a Dog in good Latin Verses expressed thus in our Tongue Of any Beast none is more faithfull found Nor yields more pastime in house plain or woods Nor keeps his Masters person or his goods With greater care than doth the Dog or Hound Command he thee obeyes most readily Strike him he whines and falls down at thy feet Call him he leaves his game and comes to thee With wagging tail offring his service meek In Summers heat he followes by thy pace In Winters cold he never leaveth thee In Mountains wild he by thee close doth trace In all thy fears and dangers true iâ— he Thy friends he loves and in thy presence lives By day by night he watcheth faithfully That thou in peace mayst sleep he never gives Good entertainment to thine enemy Course hunt in hills in valleys or in plains He joyes to run and stretch out every lim To please but thee he spareth for no pains His hurt for thee is greatest good to him Sometimes he doth present thee with a Hare Sometimes he hunts the Stag the Fox the Boar Another time he baits the Bull and Bear And all to make thee sport and for no more If so
Crabs will hang about it Some say that in June they will go forth to feed in the fields catch Frogs and feed on grasse Fed with milk without water he will live many dayes Gesner kept one alive in water 13 days put into distilled wine burnt he presently growes red and may be set on the Table alive amongst those that are boyl'd Georg. Pictorius The Males are easily discerned from the females For they where their tail is joyn'd to their body underneath have four long rods sticking forth but these have none Also their tail is rounder plainer and thicker Leonellus Faventinus commends the powder of their eyes drank with water of peach leaves after opening a vein against a bastard Pleurisie The powder of them rubb'd on the teeth cleanseth and whiteneth them In India a Shell-fish that breeds Pearl is sometimes found so great as they report that in the Island Borneus in the Sea there was one taken that the meat within it weighed 47 pound yet methinks it is questionable CHAP. VIII Of the Snail THe Snails which Dioscorides calls Garden Snails are found in abundance in the Mountains of Trent and they are the best In Winter they are dug up out of the Earth and in Gardens with some iron hooks near to the roots of herbs the Earth being dug forth They are covered with a white shell against the cold it is like to Gip so they lye under ground hid and afterwards they are more pleasant meat Matthiolus They have eyes in the top of their horns and they pull them in when any thing comes near to them and put their horns into their heads their heads into their bodies Albertus They lay white eggs as great as the Pikes eyes and in May they are found to sit upon them Gesner Albertus saith they are bred of corruption and clammy dew and that that dew hardneth into a shell Porta saith the same Phytol l. 5. c. 4. Pliny l. 9. c. 5. saith they are bred in Winter Fulvius Hirpinus made Caves of them in Tarquinis a little before the Warr with great Pompey c. Pliny l. 9. c. 56. In the Island Scyathos the Partridges feed on them but those that are call'd Ariones deceive them For going out of their shells they feed leaving their empty houses to the Herns and Partridges Aelian l. 10. c. 5. Andreas Fulnerus Gallus relates That a Remedy is made of them to multiply hair Take 300 Snails out of their shells and boyl them in water and take them out again and gather the fat that swims a top and put that into a glazed vessell and pour a Sextarius of water upon it wherein Bay leaves have been boyled with three spoonfulls of oyl one spoonfull of Honey Saffron one scruple and a little Venice Soap and a spoonfull of common Soap moderately stirred boyl them altogether With this liquor anoint your hair often and wash it with a Lye made of the Ashes of burnt Colewort stalks the place is obscure or corrupted and you shall find your hair increase daily CHAP. IX Of the Gnat. IN Aegypt there are great store of Gnats whence Herodotus calls it Conopaeam and Bellonius observat l. 2. c. 35 writes that he was so vexed with them the first night that the next day he seemed to have the Measils In divers parts of India there are kinds of Gnats whereof some in Summer time especially when the fields are cleansed do lye in the Woods others lye about the shores At Myon a City of Jonia there was a creek of the Sea not very great which when Maeander a River of that Country running into it that was very muddy had stopped the mouth of it with mud brought along with it so that in time it made a Lake there bred from thence such abundance of Gnats that the people of Myon left their City and went to Miletus When the Northern people would hinder their biting they sprinkle a decoction of Wormwood or Nigella on their heads and the rest of their body Olaus Yet he makes a difference in their bitings For they that have their blood pure and not corrupted bite them they not They meddle not with fruit before they grow sharp by corruption and they most delight in sowre things Leoâ—h Jaâ—hin But because they chiefly suck mans blood they are called the spowts of the blood of Man It is not proved that they will suck things that are sweet For the sweeter part of the blood that is most pure is consumed for nourishment and lyeth inwardly that which is rawest comes next to the skin whence it is that Pushes break forth of the body CHAP. X. Of the Urchin the Ephemera and the Catterpillar SEa-Hedge-hogs so often as they are tossed with the flowing water make themselves heavy with ballast lest they should be tossed too much being light or carried away with a tempest and so they stick fast to the Rocks Plutarch l. Utr. Animal The parts of the live ones covered with their shell and armed with their prickles if they be broken and cast into the Sea they will come together again and will know the part that is next to them and being applyed they will joyne and unite by a natural sympathy Aldrovandus As for the Ephemara the River Hypanis in Cammerius Bosphorus under the Solstice produceth little bladders greater than grape stones out of which flying creatures proceed with four feet This kind of creature lives till the afternoon the same day when the Sun departs it decays and presently dies when the Sun sets from hence it hath the name of Ephemer or a creature that lives but one day Aldrovand As for Catterpillars Hieracles testifieth that if Horses rowle themselves upon them black and blew spots will arise their skins will grow hot their eyes will be distorted and the cure is to bray vitriol one quarter of a pound Vinegar half a pound They feed on pot hearbs but if a rocket seed be sowed amongst them they will not touch them But that those hearbs may breed no noysome creatures dry all the seeds you mean to seâ— in a Tortis shell or sow mint in many places especially amongst Coleworts Prasocurides saith Cardan are such living Creatures that use to do hurt in Gardens Men say that if you bury the panch of a Wether with the dung in it not deep within the earth in the place where they abound in two days you shall find them all in heaps in that place in twice or thrice so doing you may destroy them all Paulus Aegineta writes that herb rocket annoynted with oyle will preserve men safe from the bitings of Venemous creatures CHAP. XI Of the Pismire IN the Kingdom of Senega there are white Pismires and naturally they build low houses For they carry earth in their mouths and cement it without lime you would say that they are like Ovens or little Country houses Scaliger exerc 367. In the Province of Mangu they are red and they eat them with Pepper Scalig.
to intreat and leaping in the nets strive to free themselves Oviedus and Plutarch say that with their sharp backs they will cut the line and free their captive fellowes The Dace of Phalera is so soft and fat a fish that if it be held long in the hand it will melt or if many of them be carried in Ships they will drop fat which is gathered to make Candles with Apitius as Suidas reports set the pictures of these Fishes with Rape roots cut into long and slender pieces boyl'd with oyl and strewed with pepper and salt before Nicomedes the King of Bithynia CHAP. II. Of the Eele ALl know that Eeles are found in many fresh Waters yet Nauclerus writes That in the Danube there are none but in the Rhein there are Albertus makes the cold of Danubius to be the cause thereof and this proceeds because it runs before the mouth of the Alps from West to East and receives the greatest part of its water from thence These onely contrary to other fishes do not flote being dead Pliny The reason is given by Aristotle from the small belly it hath and little fat The swimming of Lampreys Congers and Muraenas that abound with fat confirm this to be true They are so lusty that being devoured whole by a Cormorant they will come forth of his guts nine times one after another and when they are grown weak then he retains them Gesner Held in a mans bosome especially great eels will twist about a mans neck and choke him Cardanus On the Land they dye if the Sun shine on them otherwise very hardly as you may see them living when their skin is pull'd off Athenaeus Aelianus and Plutarch do testifie that in Arethusa of Chalcidon there are tame ones adorned with ear-rings of gold and silver that will take their meat by hand Nymphodorus reports the same of the River Elorus CHAP. III. Of the Whale and the Barbel THe Whale is the greatest and chief of all Fishes Pliny calls this the greatest creature in the Indian Sea which was four Acres in bignesse Massarius interprets this to be 960 foot long Nearchus saith that there are Whales of 23 paces in length and reports that in the Island before Euphrates he saw a Whale cast forth of the Sea that was 150 cubits That Whale which was taken in the Scald ten miles from Antwerp Anno 1577 on the second day of July was of a blackish blew colour he had a spout on his head wherewith he belched up water with great force he was 58 foot long and 16 foot high his tail was 14 foot broad from his Eye to the top of his nose the distance was 16 foot His lower chap was 6 foot of each side armed with 25 Teeth and there were as many holes in the upper chap where there were no teeth yet so many might have stood there The longest of his Teeth was not above 6 thumbs long A Whale not long since was taken at Sceveling a Village near the Hague in Holland was 60 foot long His head was about 3. cubits long I saw him there Platina observes that the Barbels eyes are venomous chiefly in May. Antonius Gazius found it so For when he had eaten but two bits thereof at Supper time his belly was so inflated that he looked as pale as ashes he was distemper'd all over at last he fell into the cholerick passion Nor did these symptomes abate â—ill the eyes were voided upward and downvvard CHAP. IV. Of the Carp the Clupaea and the Conger THe Carp saith Gesner hath a little white hard stone in his head near his tongue and in the middle of his head a thick substance like to a heart that is flexible while it is new but afterwards it grows hard Sometimes it is found 20 pound weight Jovius saith That there was one found in the River Latium two hundred pound weight When the Female finds her self great with young when the time of bringing forth is past by moving her mouth she rouseth the male who casts on his milt and then she bringeth forth In Polonia broad Carps being put into a fish-pond by one when the waters were frozen though he sought them diligently he could not find them when the Spring came and the waters were thawed they all appeared Gesner Clupaea is a great fish In Sagona a River in France when the Moon increaseth it is white but black when it decreaseth When the body is but a little augmented it is destroy'd by its own prickles In the head of it there is found a stone like a barley corn which when the Moon decreaseth some think it will cure the quartan Ague if it be bound to the left side Calisthenes Sybarita citante Stobaeo Congers contain their off-spring within them but it is not equally so in all places nor doth their increase appear in a fat grosse matrix but it is contain'd in it in a long rank as in Serpents which is manifest by putting it into the fire For the fat consumes but the eggs crackle and they leap forth Aristotle 6. Hist. c. 17. CHAP. V. Of the Dogg-fish THe men of Nicea saith Gellius took a Dogg-fish that weighed 4000 pound a whole man was found in the belly of it Those of Massilia found a man in Armour Rondeletius saw oâ—e on the shore at Xanton the mouth and throat were so wide that they would take in a fat man Bellonius saith that each side of the mouth had 36 teeth wherefore some think the Prophet Jonas was swallowed by this fish and that this is that they call the Whale it being so vast a creature The same Bellonius writes that this Fish at divers times brings forth 6 or 8 young ones and somtimes more each of a foot long perfect with all their parts and oft times the young one coming forth there are eggs yet raw in the matrix and some hatcht lying in the upper part toward the midriff and some of them are contained in the right turning of the matrix some in the left In her Whelps this is chiefly wonderfull that they were covered with no secondine and they are fed from some part of the Navell that hath Veins For since saith he she doth not put forth her eggs and they are tied by certaine bands to the matrix they seem to need no other coat than the Amnios whereby the Whelp being now formed and by a chink in the sternon that passeth between the fins that are toward the gills it receiveth nourishment from the matrix by a band or the middle of it that is so slender as a Lute string But this nutriment by that slender string is carried into a little bag which you would say were the stomach which is alwaies full of it like to the yolk of an egge the position of it is in the middle of the belly and under the two laps of the Liver And that this is true if you cut a Whelp taken out of the dams belly through the
in time they grow as big as the greatest Tunie fish in the Danube and their abdomen is so fat that you would say their paps were as great as a Sowes that gave suck and are covered with a rough skin that Spears are polished with them with a membrane so tied from the brain to the tail that dryed in the Sun it will serve for a whip that must be understood of these Husons For Vadianus in Epitome trium terrae partium writes that he saw some of 400 weight They are so fearful that the least fish will fright them They follow the sound of Trumpets that they will come to the bank over against it Lastly they are so strong in the water that if they strike the fisher with their tail they will strike him out of the Ship so soon as they put their heads above water they grow weak They will drink strong wine and live many days being drunk they are carried to strangers they will drink 4. Sextarii of Wine CHAP. X. Of the Pike and Luna ALbertus writes that the Pike hath its stomach so joyn'd to the throat that sometime it will cast it up for greedinesse of meat but it hath many appendixes wherein the Chylus made is preserved as Rondeletius observed There was a very great one seen that had another great one in the belly and this again had a vvater-mouse Another was seen that had tvvo young Geese in it another had a Moor-hen in its stomach For great hunger it will feed on food at Land It hath a natural Enmity with a frog Hence it is that the Frog will oft times dig out his eyes He cures his wounds by rubbing against a Tench which he alwaies keeps company with His jaw-bones boat into fine powder given the quantity of an aureus will break the stone In England they cut off the belly of it two fingers breadth and if they cannot find a Chapman they will sew up the belly and put it into their fish-pond again vvhere Tench are Though the cause may be attributed to friendship yet it is better to attribute it to the clammy matter the Tench abounds with by which he may heal his wound A Pike of Frederick the Emperour was said to have lived 267 years in a Lake that was found out by a brasse ring that he hid under his skin in his gills when he put him into the lake It had a Greek Inscription on it which is to this sense I am that Fish that was first put into this Lake by Frederick the Second Emperour of the World on the fifth of October Conradus Celtes saith that ring was found upon that Pike taken Anno 1497 as Gesner relates in Epistola nuncupatoria Luna is a fish exceeding beautiful very small broad bodied of a blevvish colour on the back it hath soft fins which vvhilest it dilates in swimming it makes a semicircle like to a half Moon Aelian ex Demostrato Those that fish for Bream say that at the full of the Moon it will grow dry and die and put on herbs it will make them wither CHAP. XI Of Manaty and the Whiting MAnaty is a great Fish taken in the Rivers of Hispaniola His head is like an Ox head or bigger His eyes in respect of his body are small he hath two thick feet like wings in the place of gills with which he swims they are set about his head he hath a thick skin and no scales He is so great that there needs a yoke of Oxen to carry him Sometimes he is above 14 or 15 foot long and eight hands thick near the tail he is narrower and as it were girt in from which straightnesse the tail growes longer and thicker He hath two stones or rather bones in his head so great as little hand-balls or the bullet of a Crosse-bowe and sometimes greater as the fish is He wants ears but in place of them he hath small holes by which he hears His skin is like the skin of a shriveled Ox a finger thick ash-coloured and thin set with hairs The tail from that straight part unto the end of it is all nervous From that cut into pieces and then set five or six dayes in the Sun and dryed and then boyled in a Cauldron or rather fryed much fat comes forth for it all resolves into fat It is good to fry eggs in a frying-pan For it never grows rank nor unsavoury He is made tame and will be taught like a dog but Franciscus Lopetius saith he will remember Injuries The petty King of Caramatexum in the Island of Hispaniola fed one of them 26 years in the Lake Guaynabo and made him so tame though he were grown great as great as an old Dolpbin for he would take meat by hand and when they call'd him Mato which in their Tongue signifies Magnificent he would come forth of the Lake and creep to the house for meat and then go back to the Lake again Boyes and Men going with him and when they sang he seemed to be delighted with it and he would let them sometimes ride on his back he would easily carry ten at a time from one part of the Lake to the other But when a certain Spaniard would make triall whether his skin were so hard or no and threw a dart at him he grew so angry that if he saw any clothed in Christians habit though he were called he would not come forth of the water After that the River Haibon swelled extreamly and ran into the Lake Guaynabo so he found his way to the Sea and the people were very sorry that he was gon The Whiting eats nothing unlesse he see it is dead Aelian The male is very jealous For he stays at home and fearing his young ones should be caught he stays to preserve them CHAP. XII Of Mirus Mola and Monoceros THe Fish Mirus is briefly described by Ambrosius Pareus In the Venetian Sea saith he between the Venetians and Ravenna two miles above Clodia Anno 1550 there was a flying Fish taken very terrible and monstrous four feet long he had a very thick head and two eys not set one against the other with two ears and a double mouth a very fleshy nose green colourd with two wings and five holes in his throat as Lampreys have his tail was an ell long and in the top of it were two little wings Also Mola is a Fish that was taken on the calends of March Anno 1552 not farr from Venice at first sight it seem'd rather a peice of Flesh than a Fish It was round it had a skin without skales or hairs The mouth was so straight that it was miraculous considering the greatnesse of the Creature The eyes were large stretching out and greater than Oxe eyes The gills were uncovered fleshy and beat the fins on the sides were a span long It had a very hard knot The Jaws on both sides were fenced with a solid continued bone the tongue of it stuck fast to the
Salmon striving to overcome the precipice of the water be frustrated at the second or third leap he swims to the foard and there he will lye hid under stones and gravel and pine away he is full of brasse colour'd spots and his beck is bent like a great hook In Scotland in Autumn they meet in little Rivers or places fordable where they joyne bellies and lay eggs and cover them in the gravel at which time the male is so spent spending his milt and seed and the female with her spawn that they are nothing but bones and prickels and skin That leannesse is infectious for they will infect all the Salmons they come neere It is an argument thereof that oft times they are taken and one side is consumed the other not so From their eyes covered in the sand little fishes breed the next spring that are so soft that untill they be no bigger than a mans finger if you presse them with your fingers they will run as from congeled moysture Then first as Nature leads them they hasten to the Sea and in 20 days or a little more it is incredible how great they will grow when they come from the Sea against a River that runs thither they shew a wonder For the Rivers that are straightned with Rocks and Banks on every side and therefore run down swiftly when they fall with a great fall the Salmons do not presently swim forth by the Channel but they fling themselves up crooked by force of the water and so are carried in the Ayre before they fall That they are lively is seen by their heart taken forth Robertus Constantinus testifies that he saw the heart of a Salmon that was unbowelled that was wet with a moyst sanies and it lived after it was taken forth above a day There are some different kinds of Turdi Some have as it were some skiny yellowish Apophyses hanging down from their lower chop somtimes they vary and are all for the most part Gold colour or colour of the Amethyst or blew Their eyes are extreme great and a black circle goes about a Golden Apple a Golden circle about the black and lastly a black circle goes about them all The fins by the gills are wholly Gold colour but of the brest they are all blew except their nervs that are Gold colour'd The fin that is from the anus and that which is on the back and taile where they are joyn'd to the rump are Gold colour'd but sprinkled with little red blood spots the rest are blew CHAP. XX. Of the Torpedo and the Tunie I Have nothing to say of the Torpedo but that he benums the hands and hence he hath his name And he doth this so effectually that before he is taken he will do it by the net or the rod. He useth this cunning that covering himself with mud and dirt he will catch little fish very strangely Plin. l. 1. utr anim The Tunies though they be caught in many places yet chiefly about Constantinople for when they come to the Islands Cyaneae and are past by the shore of Chalcedonia a certain white rock appears to them and doth so terrifie the Tunies that immediately they put over to the farther bank and being taken away with the swift current of the waters the natural fitnesse of the place turns the course of the Sea to Constantinople and the winding thereof so that being driven thither by force of Nature it is no wonder that they fall into snares They are also ingendred in the Lakes of Maeotis and when they are a little grown they break forth of the mouth of the Lake in sholes and run by the Asiatick shore so far as Trapezunda but because they cannot endure tempests and cold weather whereby their eyes grow dim they stay in a very deep place of the Thracian Sea that harbours them it is called Melas and it hath hollow and muddy places fit to cherish fish in and they grow till the Spring They seem to understand the blowings of the winds For Pliny saith they stay for the North wind that they may get out of the Pontick Sea with the flowing of the water to help them They enter into Pontus one way and go forth another For Aristotle l. 8. Histor. c. 13. saith they lye on their right side next the Earth when they no in and come forth on the contrary side for they turn on the left side which saith he they are therefore said to do because naturally they see clearest with their right eye and duller with the left The old Oracle of the Prophet Amphyllus in Herodotus proves that they go forth in the night And this is again confirmed by ancient medalls such as Bellonius writes that he saw at Paris on one side was an Ear of Corn and on the other side the Tunie and above this the Moon with an Inscription of Phillips They sleep so soundly that they may be taken napping CHAP. XXI Of the Uranoscopus and the Sword-fish URanoscopus is a fish that swims alone and eats flesh so lively saith Bellonius that if you take out all his Entrals yet he will move still It is the greediest eater of all fish he hath an apophysis hanging forth of his mouth and with that he ensnares the fish This shews he is an insatiable paunch that if you cast meat to him he will feed so long till the meat come up to his throat The Sword-fish hath a beck on both chaps but the lower of them is short and triangular the upper is more bony and harder and far longer sometimes two cubits long In the Indian Sea they grow so great that they will pierce the sides of the strongest Ships a hand and half in thicknesse sometimes Jovius Gesner writes from the relation of a faithfull friend of his who saw a man when he sailed into Syria that swam by the Ship side and he was cut in the middle by the beck of this fish He fears a Whale and when he sees one he claps his sword into the earth or some place of the Foard that he can and so forms himself like to a log and the Whale neglects him and swims by him CHAP. XXII Of some other Wonders concerning Fishes IN Minerals and Quarreys also fishes are found especially if the places be moyst though there be no water Theophrastus observed this in many places of Pontus Eudoxus in Paphlagonia Agricola at Orterantum beyond the Albis There is a plain by the River Narbon by this run the Rivers Iliberis and Roschinus there are fossil fish found therein The earth is tender there and brings much grasse about two or three cubits under this runs the water of the Rivers that hath dilated it self If at any time they overflow they fill the plain with fish from underground Polyb. in Histor. There are two sorts of them some round like to Eels but they want a tuff skin they are scaly as Gudgeons their flesh is hard and not well savoured The
AN HISTORY OF THE Wonderful Things of Nature Set forth in Ten severall Classes Wherein are contained I. The Wonders of the Heavens II. Of the Elements III. Of Meteors IV. Of Minerals V. Of Plants VI. Of Birds VII Of Four-footed Beasts VIII Of Insâ—cts and things wanting blood IX Of Fishes X. Of Man Written by Johannes Jonstonus And now Rendred into ENGLISH BY A Person of Quality LONDON Printed by John Streater living in Well-Yard near the Hospitall of St. Bartholomew's the Lesse and are to be sold by the Book-Sellers of London 1657. TO The most Illustrious Princes and Lords L. Januszius Radziwilius the sole heir of the Illustrious Prince Christopher L. Boguslaus Radziwilius the Son of the most Illustrious Prince Januszius of most Illustrious Memory To the Dukes of Birzae and Dubink c. Princes of S. R. I. D. Boguslaus Count in Lesznum Palatinidae Belzensi c. D. Uladislaus Monwid L. B. in Dorostaie High Marshall of the great Dukedome of Lithuania His most gracious Lords Most Illustrious Princes and Lords AS all things have their revolutions so hath naturall History the same chance It was held for a goddess and much honoured in former times witnesse the writings of Aristotle Pliny Dioscorides and other famous men but now a dayes it is so despised that it is of no esteem at all this matâ—er needs no proving I confesse the history of Plants is adorned by many and Mineralls are made mention of yet I doubt whether it be entirely professed in any University or School except Bononia where Aldrovandus was They that search out the secrets of Nature in cursory discourses fall unfortunatly upon the thorns of subtilties and snares of questions and do nothing but weave and unweave them with a fine thred of controversies Whence young Schollers suppose themselves fit to be Masters in Philosophy when they know how to quote Aristotle for some things confusedly and unreasonably for generall matters Most gracious Lords how unfit and hurtfull that is I leave to every man to judge As for me what Goudanus the Mr. of great Erasmus speaks of Pliny I dare to apply to natural History That it is such that who reads it not is thought to be unlearned he that disdaigns to read it is more ignorant and he that cannot rellish it is most ignorant of all And if there be any consideration had of conversation really it is more comely and more convenient for it and for us to know wonderfull nature and her motions to learn the forces and natures of living creatures mettals sprouts plants to look into the Anatomy of man and to contemplate other rare admirable things in nature than to rest satisfied in a few general things of motion of the heavens of meteors and of the soul Johannes valent Andr. in Jnstit Magica and oft times to agitate these things againe till we grow ridiculous And indeed if the general Principles of natural Philosophy be lookt into it will appeare they cannot consist without knowledg of History For being that universalls are built upon particulars illustrated demonstrated determined refuted by them how can he be skilled in Philosophy who is ignorant of History or how can he salve the many defects thereof and constitute Axioms that are introductive to action and search out the forms c The same will befall him as it befell Ixion who embraced a Clowd for Juno the powerfull goddess whom he intended to embrace and so is reported to have begotten Centaures and Chimaera's As for what concerns action he shall never change any other mettal into Gold who knows not the natures of the weight the yellow colour of the malleablenesse the extensivenesse the fixt and volatile substance of them and hath not diligently lookt into the menstruum and seeds of minerals He can never hope to retard old age who hath not first the knowledge of the nature of driness and of the depredation of the Spirits upon solid bodies of assimilation and alimentation But the straightning of nature and daily contesting with her is the principall thing whereunto the knowledge of the same is directed He is to me a true Son of natural Philosophy who knows how to augment and multiply the Winds to produce new mettals to make mineral Waters Artificial of Vitriol Brimstone Allum c. and to bring forth new plants and animals He is a legitimate enquirer into Nature who knowes how to prolong life keep back old age change statures and complexions raise the force of imagination upon any body cure diseases hitherto uncurable ease pains and can hasten the times of maturity clarification putrefaction concoction and germination I will now say nothing of Natures book wherein we may behold the supreme power as the Sun is seen in the water For it is certain that he is comprehended under the title of natural history and it is farr more easy to find out his goodnesse wisdom and power by the apparition of new Starrs the flowing of the Sea about Maccareo the increase of Iron in Ilva the marriage of palme Trees the flowring of Mulberries the ingenuity of Elephants the Kingdom of Bees the harvest of Pismires the foresight of Dolphins and the infinite Sympathies and Antipathies of things created than out of those vast discourses of the entity of materia prima identity of motion the measure of time c which are found in Albertus Thomas Scotus Fonseca Masius Ruvius Toletus and others Who knows not but that the knowledge of God is the principall end of Sciences When I had diligently considered of these things first induced thereunto by the writings of that reverend man D. Johannes Andreas my much honoured friend I not only conceived a high love of naturall History but I thought my self obliged to perswade young men that were studious to do the same But because I observed that the Theoreticall part was shut up in huge Volums and the practick involved with great difficulties and I saw that Youth that are given to idlenesse would hate labour and being addicted to pleasure would not endure difficult things I imitating the Sons of Aesculapius who allure the sick to use bitter things use also syrups confections electuaries c. have culled out the most pleasant things and if any be doubtfull it was done to spur them on as much as my other occasions would suffer me which I had in Poland being Tutor to the most noble Kurtzbachius de Zwada as also by my proper studies in the low Countries out of the huge volumes of Pliny concerning whom I like that saying of Lipsius He that calls Pliny his works Pandects in my opinion shall not err for that man read knew all and shut up Greece and Italy in one volume Agricola Gesner Aldrovandus Libavius Mathiolus Scaliger Cardan and many more writings and by these my purpose was to invite with intreaty the studious youth that labour so much in the common principles of natural Philosophy to a more serious scrutiny of Nature But most
illustrious Princes and Lords when as the manner is I sought for a Patron I thought this work did of duty belong unto your Name For If it be considered the examples of Solomon Alexander Mithridates Diocletian Francis the first King of France and others will teach you that the knowledge of natural Philosophy belongs also to Princes and to great men If you I confesse the hope of Poland now and in time may be the Starrs of that Country that with the beams of their light will vouchsafe to illuminate the Church the Common-wealth and schooles of learning If I I have drawn these things forth chiefly for the good of my Nation and I study other things if God please to lend me space to perfect my intentions Yet I deny not but it may be I owe more to you already than I can pay For most Illustriuos Prince Janusius you were pleased at Lipsia to invite me to your Table and to discourse with me And the most illustrious Lord Alexander Przybkowic Przybkowsky your high treasurer thought me worthy to have the offer of a place in your illustrious family if occasion were Most illustrious Lord how great your Noblenesse was to me my conversation at Lesna with the most learned Lord Michael Henry a most excellent Chymist and your hof-master and with the reverend Mr. David Ursin a man of singular fidelity and prudence who sojourns with you may sufficiently witnesse Also most Illustrious Lord Boguslaus your letters are sufficient testimonies whereby you often spake to me when I lived in Holland and the good words you spake of me being absent most lovingly when you departed from Lesna Wherefore most illustrious Lords whatsoever this small work is I lay it down at your feet and you I hope will receive a small gift of a thankfull mind with that Heroick humanity that is bred in you and think that I owe you much more but I cannot give you more than I do God grant that the Majesty of Arts buried in our minds may be recall'd and brought to life again by your promoting voyce and be restored to its former luster As for me if I find that you accept of these things and that they are usefull for our students I shall indeavour to handle these things more accurately and to frame a compleat Circle of Arts and Sciences in a small history that young students may have the fruit of it and may more happily be promoted in the course of their studies I wish it In the mean while that you most Illustrious Lords may live long for the glory of God and good of your Country Given at London May 15 old style Anno 1631. Your most Illustrious Highnesse and Greatnesse most bounden Servant John Jonston The Contents of all the Chapters and Articles contained in this Book The Contents of the First Classis Chapter 1. OF the World Page 1 Artic. 1. Of the Creation of the World Page 1 Artic. 2. Of the parts of the world and disposing of them Page 3 Artic. 3. Of unity figure and soul of the World Page 4 Artic. 4. Of the Duration of the World past and to come Page 5 Artic. 5. Of the hidden qualities of natural bodies Page 6 Artic. 6. Of Gods Providence in the World Page 7 Chap. 2. Of Heaven Page 8 Chap. 3. Of the Stars Page 8 Article 1. Of the Force and Nutriment of the Stars Page 8 Artic. 2. Of the Light of the fixt Stars their magnitude and motion Page 10 Chap. 4. Of the Five lesser Planets Page 17 Chap. 5. Of the Sun Page 18 Artic. 1. Of the Magnitude and Unity of the Sun Page 18 Artic. 2. Of the Suns light and Eclipse Page 19 Artic 3. Of the Suns Motion Page 20 Artic. 4. Of the Inequality of Days and Nights Page 21 Artic. 5. Of the Four Parts of the Year Page 22 Artic. 6. Of the Sun's shadow Page 23 Art 7. Of the Suns Influence on Inferiour things Page 24 Chap. 6. Of the Moon Page 24 Artic. 1. Of the Figures and light of the Moon Page 24 Artic. 2. Of the Spots and Eclipse of the Moon Page 25 Artic. 3. Of the Moon 's Influence on these sublunary things Page 26 Chap. 7. Of New Stars Page 27 Chap. 8. Of Astrologicall Praedictions Page 29 The Contents of the Second Classis Chap. 1. Of Fire Page 33 Artic. 1. Of the Wonderful begining of Fires Page 33 Artic. 2. Of Fires in the Waters Page 34 Artic. 3. Of Fires under the Earth Page 35 Artic. 4· Of the beginning or subterraneall Fire Page 36 Artic. 5. Of the Miracles of Fires in duration burning and quenching Page 37 Chap. 2. Of the Ayr. Page 39 Artic. 1. Of the three Regions of the Ayr. Page 39 Artic. 2. Of the Infection of the Ayr Page 40 Artic. 3. Of the Putrefaction of the Ayr. Page 41 Artic. 4. Of Attraction cooling and penetrating of the Ayr. Page 42 Chap. 3. Of the Water Page 43 Artic. 1. Of the quantity and colour of Waters Page 43 Artic. 2. Of the Taste of the Water Page 43 Artic. 3. Of the Smell of the Water the first and second qualities Page 44 Artic. 4. Of the Diverse running of the Water Page 44 Artic. 5. Of the change of quantity and of qualities in Waters Page 45 Artic. 6. Of some other things admirable in Waters Page 46 Artic. 7. Of some Floods or Waters and of the Universall Deluge Page 48 Chap. 4. Of the Originall of Fountains Page 50 Chap. 5. Of Minerall Baths Page 53 Chap. 6. Of the Sea Page 55 Artic. 2. Of Navigation in the Sea Page 55 Artic. 3. Of the depth freesing and colours of the Sea Page 57 Artic. 4. Of the Salt of the Sea Page 58 Artic. 5. Of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Page 59 Chap. 7. Of the Earth Page 64 Artic. 1. Of the New World Page 64 Artic. 2. Of the Miracles of some Countries Page 66 Chap. 8. Of Islands Page 67 Artic. 1. Of the Originall and destruction of Islands Page 67 Artic. 2. Of the Miracles of some Islands Page 68 Chap. 9. Of Mountains Page 69 Artic. 1. Of the Qualities and Quantities of Mountains Page 69 Artic. 2. Of Aetna and Hecla Mountains Page 70 The Contents of the Third Classis Chapter OF Subterraneall Exhalations Page 73 Chap. 2. Of Comets Page 74 Artic. 1. Of the Nature and quantity of Comets Page 74 Artic. 2. What Comets are a sign Page 75 Chap. 3. Of an Ignis Fatuus Helena Castor and Pollux Page 76 Chap. 4. Of an Ignis Lambens Page 76 Chap. 5. Of Lightning Thunder and Thunder-bolts Page 78 Chap. 6. Of Winds Page 80 Artic. 1. Of the Originall of Winds Page 80 Artic. 2. Of the kinds and effects of winds Page 81 Chap. 7. Of Earth-quakes Page 82 Artic. 1. Of the Cause of Earth-quakes Page 82 Artic. 2. Of the place time and effects of Earth-quakes Page 83 Chap. 8. Of Rain Page 85 Chap. 9 Of Snow and Hail Page 86 Chap. 10.
every thing had a sufficient perfection given to it and is content with it thence we see his goodnesse They are all from God and they tend unto God thence is glory Article 2. Of the Parts of the World and the disposing of them WEe need not be over-curious for the matter of it It contains the Heaven with the Stars the Elements Meteors in the Ayr Fishes in the Waters Minerals in the secrets of the Earth Plants Animals and Man are in the upper surface They are all materiall and corporeal things which wise men include in it and they are all realities Heaven is thought to be uncompounded the Elements serve for composition Meteors are imperfectly mixt Minerals perfectly but without life Plants with life but without sense Beasts with life and sense but without reason Man with life sense and reason is the compendium of all a little world in the great world The perfection is as great as the matter could bear the Workmaster could give more but the Matter was not capable of it Scalig. Exerc. 243. s. 3. The goodnesse is confirmed by the decree of God Gen. 1. vers ult He saw and behold all things were good The manner of ordering them in this great Engine Zeno in Laertius amongst the Philosophers hath declared That God at first whilest he was alone changed all essence by Ayr into Water and as in the birth the seed is contain'd so God who is the seminal cause of the World left such a seed in the moysture that should afford an easie and fit matter for this work for the generation of things afterwards Then he first produced the four Elements Fire Water Ayr Earth c. Trismegistus in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaks true There was saith he infinite darknesse in the deep and the water and an intelligible spirit were by Divine vertue existing in the Chaos wherefore the holy light was taken away and the Elements were congealed and fastned beneath of a moyst substance and all these embraced and were in love with a seminall nature And when all things were undivided and not set in order they were parted and things that were leight chose the uppermost place heavy the lowest moyst the dry Land all of them being divided by the Fire and hanging in the Ayr and carried by it And the Heaven appeared in 7. circles and the gods appearing in the Aspects of the Stars with all their signs and the whole circumference was distinguished and with the gods that are in it was circumscribed with the circumambient Ayr and carried by a moving Divine spirit And every God by his own vertue produced what he was commanded and there were brought forth four-footed beasts creeping things Fishes Birds and every seminall plant and grasse and flowers and every herb contain'd in themselves seeds of regeneration and the Generations of men were for the knowledge of Divine things c. But Moses sets it down most truly Gen. Chap. 1. Heaven and Earth and Light the first day are The Firmament dividing Waters second were The third the waters parted Plants the Earth The fourth to Sun and Moon and Stars gives birth The fifth gives Fishes and all kind of Birds The sixth brought Cattell all made by Gods Words Then Man was made the seventh rest affords Danaeus in Phys. Christiana Artic. 3. Of Unity Figure and Soul of the World DEmocritus and Empedocles supposed that other worlds were made successively of some indivisible small seeds Hence Alexander complain'd that he had not yet conquered one Origines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said they were infinite successively that the Elementary world was made every 7 thousand years and the heavenly once in 4900 years For the Sabbath for the earth and the yeare of Jubilee was wont to return every 7th year and every 49 yeares Leo Hebraeus toucheth upon this opinion Dialog de Amore where he saith The inferior world by the opinion of the old divines is generated corrupted and renewd once in 7000 years But because we see nothing moved in it confusedly nor any thing set without it whither shall we go out of it Our desire is answered For in the end of our cogitations the same question alwaies returns Wherefore we say that there is but one world and the figure of it is plain like to a skin stretched forth very large saith Basilius But Plato held that it was like a Circumvex pointed with many Angles Sanchumates Berytius the most ancient writer of the affaires of Phoenicia said it was like to an Egge wherefore at the feasts of Bacchus they religiously adored an egg as the emblem of the world Some compare it to the greek letter Ω in which the outward lineament represents the Ocean Dalecham P. ad l. 2. Plin. hist. c. 3. But that it is made like a Globe not only the name and consent amongst men that call it so but every mans eyes can tell him for it is convex and one half look upon it which way we will Plato Of which living creatures he would have all other living creatures contain'd he framed that of such a forme that in that one all the rest might be contain'd The Stoâ—cks would have it to be a living creature endued with sense and reason Hence grew that description by its parts The Starr saith Plutarch of the face of the Moon are shining eyes in the face of the world they run their race the Sun is in place of the Heart as this affords blood and spirit so that sends forth heat and light the world useth the Earth and the Sea as a living creature doth its belly and bladder The Moon between the Sun and the Earth is as the Liver between the heart and belly or some soft bowel and attenuating its respirations by some concoction and purgation scatters them about Elegantly but not true For the world hath no known soul if we ascribe any thing to it all will be but a diffused force common to all and in proportion we may call it a soul. For what the soul is in bodies the same is force diffused in the universe Combach in Phys. cap. de Mundo Artic. 4. Of the Duration of the World past and to come THe duration of the World both past and to come is sought out by many but no certainty is proved The Aegyptians formerly boasted of 48000 years past in their History the Chaldaeans 470000 The East-Indies 700000. The Aegyptians are disproved by their disagreement one of them reported 20000 to Solon that asked him another 1300 to Herodotus The Chaldaeans alleage that in 48863 there have been only 832 luminaries But the doctrine of Astronomy shewes these to be trifles If this were not it might be yet Diodorus in Augustus his time searched for the greatest antiquity of the Aegyptians and found scarce 4000. Calisthenes Nephew to Aristotle by his sister found the Chaldaeans not to be 2000 Simplicius reports it Amongst our Chronologers the Christian Epoche is uncertain nor is there any beam so
their bosomes Fire is not unknown to us So great is the variety of it and it is so manifold that I know not what order to deliver it in Pliny saith it is from it self steel rubb'd against steel causeth fire Also the stones we call fire-stones stricken against steel or other stones send forth sparkles Therefore the Laplanders begin their Contracts of Marriage with the fire and flint Scalig. Exerc. 16. s. 1. For fire with them is the Authour of life and the flint is eternal wherein the treasure never fails It is in vain to try that in a brittle stone for the piece falling away that which should draw forth the Ayr is lost The rubbing of sticks one against another will fetch fire The Indians do so They make two sticks fast together and put another stick between them turning it swift like a wimble and so they make them take fire Ovetan l. 6. c. 5. In Apulia they wrap a Caâ—â—â— iâ— cords and draw them as fast as they can forward and backward till they fire it by motion Mayolus Colloq 2â— The Vestal Nuns did the same when their eternall fire went out if we credit Festus In Nympheus a flame goes out of a Rock which is kindled by rain Aristotle saith in Admirand it is not perceived untill you cast oyl upon it and then the flame flyes upward We find also in Authours that in the Country of the Sabins and Apulia there is a stone that will fire if you annoint it Plin. l. 2. c. 207. In Aricia if a live cole fall on arable ground the ground will burn In a Town of Picenum Egnatia if wood be laid on a certain stone that they account holy there it will flame presently Also a flame goes forth at the waters of Scantia but it is very weak at the going forth and will not last long in any other matter Also at Gratianopolis in Dauphin flame shines out when you stir the burning Fountain with a staff so that straw may be kindled by it Dalechamp ad l. c. The fire of the Mountain Chimerâ— is kindled by water Plin. l. 2. c. 106. If you hold a glasse Globe full of water in the Sun fire will rise from the repercussion of the light from the water in the coldest frost Lactan. de ira Dei c. 10. Sometimes also fire ariseth so suddenly in houses that it may be thought wonderful Cardan l. 10. de varietate c. 49. ascribes the cause to the salt and Salt-Peter that sticks to the walls of the houses Which Valerius reports concerning the Schollar of the vestall Nun Maxima Aemilia l. 1. c. 1. that she adoring Vesta when she had laid her fine linnen veil upon the hearth the fire that was out shined forth again an old wall being scraped down he writes that it might take fire onely by hot Ashes If you look in the Bible you shall find a wonderfull originall of fire in it 1 King c. 18. Elias when he offered sacrifice brought fire down from heaven which consumed the sacrifice wood stones dust and water In the Book of Judges Ch. 6. when Gideon at the command of the Angel had laid flesh and bread upon a stone and poured Frankincense upon them fire came forth of the stone and consumed them Artic. 2. Of Fires in the Waters IF we will credit Histories it is most certain that fires have been seen in the waters Pliny saith lib. 2. c. 107. That the whole Lake Thrasimenus was on fire That the Sea did burn Liv. lib. 33. when Alaricus wasted Italy and John Chrysostome was driven from his Bishoprick the Earth quaked fire fell from Heaven and a wind took it and cast it into the Sea which took fire by it and at last went out again Niceph. l. 13. c. 36. In the fields of Babylon there is a Fish-pond that burns which is about an Acre of ground Plin. lib. 2. c. 106. A stone cast into a Lake near to Denstadium of Thuringia when it sinks to the bottom it hath the form of a burning arrow Agricol lib. 4. de nat affluent c. 22. In a City of Comagena called Samosata there is a Lake that sends forth burning mud Plin. l. 2. c. 104. Posidonius saith that in his time about the Summer Solstice in the morning that between Suda and the Sea of Evonymus fire was seen lifted up to a wonderfull height and to have continued so a pretty while carried up with a continued blast and at length it sunk down Many dayes after Slime appeared that it swam on the top of the waters and that flames brake forth in many places and smoaks and soot and at length that Slime grew hard and that the lumps grown hard were like unto Milstones Julius Obsequens adds that it dispersed a great multitude of fish which the Liparenses much feeding on were spoiled by them so that the Islands were made wast with a new plague Strabo l. 6. Between Ther and Therasia which are in the Cyclades flames went out of the Sea in such abundance that is was extreme hot and seemed to burn and when it had swelled by degrees of the peices cast out that were like to Iron an Island was made which was called Hiera and Automate now it is called Vulcanellus by a very small arme of the Sea it is parted from Vulcanellus Plin. l. 2. c. 87. Artic. 3. Of Fire under the Earth I Said that fire was also in the waters now I will shew that in the bowells of the earth fire is generated When Claudius Nero was Emperour fire was seen to come forth of the Earth in the land of the Town of Colein and it burnt the Fields Villages Houses now because the matter of it was bituminous and could be quenched neither by raine nor River waters nor by any other moisture it was extinguished by Stones and old Garments In Misena a Country of Germany a Mountain of Coles burns continually the trenches falling down by degrees in the superficies which if any man behold they appear to be burning Furnaces The fire kindles any thing neere to it at four foot distance but not put close to it Agricol de natur effluent ex terr Vesuvius also a Mountain in Campania burned when Titus Vespasianus and Flavius Domitianus the seventh were Consuls First it cast out Stones from the top broken open after that it cast forth such Flames that two Towns Herculaneum and Pompeti were set on fire and it sent forth such thick smoak that it obscured the Sun and lastly it blew forth such a quantity of Ashes that like snow it covered the Neighbour Country which by force of winds was carryed into Africa Aegypt Syria Dion Cass. in Histor. When the Elder Pliny beheld this Fire the Younger in Epistol ad Tacitum the smoak so stopped his sharp artery that his breath being intercepted he was choaked There is also a mountain of late in Campania full of rises from the time the fire was bred there which burns and rores
within and sends forth smoak in many places and very hot brooks the shore smoaks at the foot of the Mountain the sand is hot the Sea boyles Agricol l. c. In the same place there are many ditches covered with sand into which some that have viewed these things carelesly have sunk in and were stifled This is in Europe In India there are no lesse burnings by fire In Ciapotulan a Province of the Kingdome of Mexico a Mountain casts forth stones as big as houses and those stones cast forth have flames of fire in them and seem to burn and are broke in pieces with a great noise Petrus Alvarad ad Cortesium In the province Quahutemallan of the same Country two Mountaines within two Leagues one of the other vomit out fire and tremble Petrus Hispalens p. 5. C. 23. In Peruacum also out of the Mountain Nanavata the Fire flies out at many holes and out of one boyling water runs of which salt is made In the same Peruacum in the Town Molahaâ—o fire is vomited forth and ashes is cast out for many dayes and covers many Towns There is an Island next to great Java in the middle of which land there burns a perpetuall fire Odoard Barbosa In the Island Del Moro there is a Fire cast forth with such a noise that it is equall to the loudest Cannon and the darknesse is like Night The Ashes so abound that houses have sunk down under them and Trees have been barren for three yeres their boughs being lopt off all places are fild with Ashes and living Creatures destroyed with hunger and pestilence also sweet waters have been changed into bitter Diat Jesuita Also there are concealed Fires namely there where the waters run forth hot warm or sower or where exhalations break forth good or bad and where places seem adust Strab. in Geograph There is a Country in Asia which is called Adust which is 500 furlongs long and 50 broad whether it should be called Misia or Meonia saith Strabo In this there grows no Tree but the Vine that brings forth burnt Wine so excellent that none exceeds it You may not think that those Fires stay only in one straight place for they pass many miles under ground Agricol l. 4. de nat Effl. c. 24. in Campania from Cunae thorough Baianum Puteoli and Naples Also out of Campania they seem to come as far as the Islands Aenaria Vulcania c. Hence Pindarus elegantly faigned that the Gigant Typâ—o being stricken with a Thunder-Bolt lay buried under these places Artic. 4. Of the Original of Subterraneall Fire WEe will now search out the original of these Fires and what it is that kindles and nourisheth them The Poets speak Fables concerning Aetna but of this more in the 4th Chapter Hyginius Mytholog cap. 152. Hell of the Earth begat Typhon of a vast magnitude and a wonderfull shape who had 100 Dragons heads that sprang from his shoulders He challenged Jupiter to strive for his Kingdome Jupiter hit him on the breast with a burning Thunder-bolt and having fired him he cast Mount Aetna upon him which is in Sicilia and from that time it is said to burn yet Isidor l. 14. c. 8. ascribes it to Brimstone that is kindled by the blasts of winds Justinus affirms that it is nourished by water Bleskenius relates of Hecla that no man knowes by what fire or what matter it burneth but since that brimstone is dug forth of all Islandia it should appear that a brimstony matter was sometimes kindled there Not far from Hecla are Pits of brimstone saith Bertius in Islandia That is certain that brimstone affords nourishment for this fire under ground and it is such as will burn in water For in these Mountains Writers make mention of waters and we have shew'd that it hath sometimes burned in the Sea But Lydiat L. de orig font thinks That in the gulfs of the Sea a most violent fire is contained and he demonstrates this by Earth-quakes Therefore the food of it cannot be dry and like to the Earth which we call Dorfa for that is quickly consumed by fire and is quenched by water Nor is it Marle for that will not burn unlesse it be sulphureous and bituminous Brimstone burns indeed but it is soon put out with water therefore it is Bitumen and this seems to be the subject of it Strabo writes That there are under this Cave Fountains of water and Pliny addes l. 2. c. 106. that it burns with water running from Bitumen Burning Bitumen sends forth fire in Hecla a Mountain in Islandia which consumes water The stones of Rivers and the sand burn at Hephestios a Mountain of Lycia and they are bituminous Naphta is very near akin to fire and it presently flames Pliny l. c. Wherefore we think Bitumen to be the food for these fires and they are kindled by a fiery vapour that takes fire if but cold thrust it forth as the Clowds thrust ouâ— lightnings or drives it into some narrow places where rolling it self up and down and seeking to come forth it burns in the conflict and flames Agricol lib. cit Artic. 5. Of the Miracles of Fire in duration burning and in being Extinguished SOme Fires are perpetuall The stone Asbestos once lighted can never be extinguished therefore Writers say it was placed in Idol Temples and the Sepulchres of the dead Solinus c. 12. There was a Monument once dug up wherein was a Candle that had burned above 1500 years when it was touched with the hands it went to fine ashes Vives ad lib. 21. de Civitat Dei Vives saw wicks at Paris which once lighted were never consumed In Britany the Temple of Minerva had a perpetual fire when it consumed it was turned into balls of stone Solinus c. 24. Polyhist The same thing is written of a certain Wood near to Urabia in the New-found World There are some fires that burn not either not at all or in some certain matter or else miraculously In Pythecusis saith Aristotle admirand c. 35. there is a fervent and hot fire that burns not An Ash that shadowes the Waters called Scantiae is alwayes green Plin. lib. 2. c. 107. In the Mountain of Puteoli consisting of Brimstone there is a fire comes forth that is neither kindled nor augmented by oyl nor wax or any fat matter nor is it quenched with water or kindled and it will not burn towe cast into it nor can any Candle be lighted by it Mayolus Colloq 22. he conceives it is not fire but fiery water Near Patara in Lycia flame is cast forth of a field you shall feel the heat if you put your hands to it but it will never burn The parts of the ambient ayr that are cold and moist are said to be the cause of it that by their thinnesse entring into the fire do hinder the burning of it Some napkins made of a kind of Flax will not burn and being durty they are never washed but being cast
that fresh ayr may come if Snow and water be set about the bed if the walls be compassed about with Willow leaves or with linnen cloaths dipt in vinegar and Rose-water if the floor be sprinkled and fountains made to run in the chamber if beds saith Avicenna be made over a pit of water If beds be made of Camels hair or of linnen laying the skin under them If the Bed be strewed with herbs and lastly if fragrant fruits be placed near the bed Heurn lib 2. Medic. c. 18. CHAP. III. Of the Water Artic. 1. Of the quantity and colour of Waters SO much for Ayr Now followes the Element of Water And first we shall consider the quantity and the colour of it In the Country of the great Cham near the City Simqui there is the River Quian which is 10 miles broad and waters 200 Cities and it is so long that it cannot be sailed in 100 dayes Polus writes That he told in the Haven of it 50000 Ships Also in Moscovia the Duina is so great by the melting of the Snow that it cannot be passed over in a whole day with a well sayling Ship it is at least 50 miles broad Jovius a Lake of Genebar the Portingalâ—s call it January Thuan. histor l. 16. is so large under Capricorn that men write who have sailed thither That all the Ships in the World may well harbour there As for Colours they are different in many waters Danubius is white as milk and water which divides Noricum and Windelicia from Germany Agricol de Natur. effluent The Waters of the Mayn especially where it hath passed the Francks and is fallen into the Rheyn are yellowish The Fountain Telephus is muddy near Patâ—ra and mingled with blood In Ethiopia there are red Waters that make one mad that drinks them At Neusola in the Mountain Carpathâ—s waters runing out of an old passage under ground are green At Ilza that which comes forth of the Mountains of Bohemia and runs into Danubius is black Artic. 2. Of the Taste of Water THere is no lesse variety of Waters in their tastes Some are sweet some taste like wine you shall find every where salt Allom tasted sharp bitter waters every where The Waters of Eleus Chocops Rivers are sweet The Kings of Persia drank of them and transported them to far Countries The water of Cardia in a field called Albus is sweeter then warm milk Pausanias So is Vinosa near Paphlagonia whence so many strangers come thither to drink of it In the bosome of the Adriatick Sea where it turns to Aquileia there are 7. Fountains and all of them except one are salt Polyb. in Hist. At Malta there is one that the waters running above are very sweet but the lower waters are brackish Aristobul Cassand The small River Exampeus is so bitter that it taints the great River Hypanis in Pontus In the Lake Ascanium and some Fountains about Chalcis the upper waters are sweet and the lower taste of nitre Plin. in Hist. The Fountains are sowr about Culma and because the water though it be cold boyls they seem to be mad Agricol lib. cit In the same place there is a Mineral water which they call Furious because it boyls and roars like thunder In Cepusium at Smolâ—icium it not onely eats iron but turns it into brasse But the water about Tempe in Thessaly of the River Styx can be contained in no vessel of silver brasse iron but it eats through them nothing but a hoof can hold it Artic. 3. Of the Smell of Water and of the first and second qualities THe hot Baths that are distant from Rhegium the Town of Lepidus Aemilius 26 miles smell of so gallant Bitumen that they seem to be mingled with Camphir There was a Pit in Peloponnesus near the Temple of Diana whose water mingled with Bitumen smelt as pleasant as the unguent Cyzicenum In Hildesham there are two Fountains the one flowes out of Marble that smells like stinck of rotten Eggs and taste sweet but if any man drinks of it fasting he will belch and smell like the Marble pownded The other is from Brimstone and smells like Gun-Powder The water of this brook covers with mud the stones that lie in the channel of it scrape it off and dry it and it is Brimstone Agric. lib. cit Arethusa a Fountain of Sicily is said to smoke at a certain time At Visebad there is a Spring in the Road-way the water whereof is so hot that you may not onely boyl Eggs in it but scall'd chicken and hoggs for it will fetch off feathers or hair if you dip them in or pour it upon them Ptolomy Comment lib. 7. affirms That at Corinth there is a Fountain of water which is colder than Snow Near the Sea-Banks at Cuba there is a River so continual that you may sayl in it yet it is so hot that you cannot touch it with your hands Martyr Sum. Ind. Near the Province Tapala it runneth so hot that one cannot passe over it Ramus tom 3. At Segesta in Sicily Halbesus suddenly growes hot in the middle of the River Pontus is a River that lyes between the Country of the Medes and the Scythians wherein hot burning stones are rolled yet the water it self is cold These if you move them up and down will presently cool and being sprinkled with water they shine the more bright Lastly near the City Ethama there is a River that is hot but it is good to cleanse the Lepers and such as are ulcerated Leonius Also some waters swim above others Arsanias swims above Tigris that is near unto it so often as they both swell and overflow their banks Peneres receiveth the River Eurôta yet it admits it not but carrieth it a top of it like oyl for a short space and then forsakes it Plin. hist. Natural Artic. 4. Of the Diverse running of the Water IT is said of Pyramus a River of Cappadocia which ariseth from Fountains that break forth in the very plain ground that it presently hides it self in a deep Cave and runs many miles under ground and afterwards riseth a Navigable River with so great violence that if any man put a sphear into the hole of the Earth where it breaks forth again the force of it will cast out the sphear Strabo l. 12. Not far from Pompeiopolis in the Town Coricos in the bottom of a Den of wonderfull depth a mighty River riseth with incredible force and when it hath ran with a great violence a short way it sinks into the Earth again Mela. l. 1. c. 6. The Water Marsia after it hath run along tract from the utmost Mountains of the Peligni passing through Marsius and the Lake Fucinus it disemboggs into a Cave then it opens it self again in Tiburtina and is brought 9 miles with Arches built up into Rome Plin. l. 31. c 3. The Sabbaticall River was wont to be empty every seventh day and was dry but all the six dayes it was
full of water But that ceased when the sacrifice ceased Joseph l. 7. c. 24. There is a certain River Bocatius speaks of every ten years it makes a mighty noyse by the stones striking together and this is suddenly in a moment and the stones ran downwards for 3. dayes and 3 or 4 times a day though it be fair weather and after three dayes all is quiet Strabo writes of the Rivers of Hircania l. 11. There are in the Sea high shores that are prominent and are cut forth of Rocks but when the Rivers run out of the Rocks into the Sea with great violence they passe over a great space as the fall betwixt the Sea and the Rocks that Armies may march under the fall of the waters as under Arches and receive no hurt Trochlotes in North Norway makes such a noyse when it runs that it is heard 20 miles Olaus l. 2. c. 28. Beca in Livonia runs forth of the Rocks with such a fall that it makes men deaf Ortel in Livon Tâ—nais by a very long passage from Scythia falling into the Lake Meotis it makes it so long and broad that those that are ignorant of it take it for a great Mountain Boccatius In Solomon's Temple there ran a Spring great in Summer small in Winter Euseb. praeparat Evangel l. 9. c. 4. If you ask the cause it is taken from the Time All things are wet in Winter then are the Channels full and for want of evaporation the waters are kept in But in Summer all things are dry and the Suns heat penetrates Hence it is that they are congregated in their Fountains and run out by the Ayr inforcing them Maeander is so full of windings and turnings that it is often thought to run back again c. He that seeks more concerning Nilus and other Waters let him read Geographerrs Artic. 5. Of the change of quantity and of qualities in Waters THis great variety in Waters that I have set down is a token of the wisdome and power of God and it is no lesse wonder that the same waters should be so diversly changed It is certain that they are changed A Fountain in the Island Tenedos alwayes from 3. at night till 6. after the Summer Solstice overflowes There is another in â—odon that hath its Name from Jupiter it fails always at Noon-day And the River Po in Summer as if it took its rest growes dry saith Pliny In Italy Tophanus a Fountain of Anagnania is dry when the Lake Fucinus is frozen at other times of the year it runs with great quantity of water Agricol l. cit passim The Waters of the Lake of Babylon are red in Summer Boristhenes at some times of the year seems to be died with Verdigrease The water of the Fountain of the Tungri is boyling hot with fire subterraneal and is red The Waters of the River Caria by Neptunâ—s Temple were sweet and are now salt But in Thrace when Georgius Despota ruled a sweet Fountain grew to be bitter intolerably and whole rivers were changed at Citheron in Beotia as Theophrastus writes Men report that of the Mineral Waters which run by the Pangaeus a Mountain of Thrace an Athenian cotyle weighs in Summer 64 grains and in Winter 96. In the Province of Cyrene the Fountain of the Sun is hot at midnight afterwards it cooles by degrees and at Sun-rising it is cold and the higher the the Sun riseth the colder it is so that it is frozen at mid day then again by degrees it growes warm it is hot at Sun-set and the more the Sun proceeds the hotter it becomes The same Fountain every day as it growes cold at mid-day so it is sweet as it growes hot at midnight so it growes bitter Artic. 6. Of some other things admirable in Waters THey were wonders that are passed but greater follow In those it is easy to assign a cause mixture or some such like if you rightly consider it but here it is difficult for though you may in some yet commonly we must fly to hidden qualities I will briefly rehearse them Some drops of a Fountain of the Goths powred upon the Earth cease to move and are thickned by the ayr The waters of Cepusia in Pitchers turn into a Stone those of Rhaetid make people foolish they pull out the teeth in two years and dissolve the ligaments of the sinews which Pliny writes to be in Germany by the Sea-side Those of Islandia change things that are hollow into stones Tybur covers Wood with stone covers Zamenfes in Africa makes clear voyces Soractes when the Sun riseth runs over as though it boyled birds that then drink of it die He growes temperate who drinks of the Lake Clitorius and he forgets who drinks of a well nere the River Orchomenus sacred to the God Trophonius Philarch. He proves dull of wit that drinks of a Fountain in the Island Cea Agricola de reb 〈…〉 terra effluent gives a cause for it as for the former by reason of the bitumen For saith he the seeds of wild Parsnips wrapt in a linnen clout and put into Wine as also the powder of the flowers of Hermodactylus which the Turks use being drunk with it are the cause that it will make a man sooner and more drunk so some kind of Bitumen mixt with water is wont to make men drunk The horses drinking Sebaris are troubled with sneesing whatsoever is sprinkled with it is couloured black Clitumnus of Umbria drank of makes white Oxen and Cesiphus of Beotia white sheep but a River in Cappadocia makes the hair whiter softer and longer In Pontus Astaces waters the fields in which Mares are fed that feed the whole Countrey with black milk The waters in Gadaris make men bald and deprive Cattle of hair hooffs and horns Cicero writes that in the Marshes of Reate the hoofs of beasts are hardned The hot baths at the Fort of New-house colour the Silver Rings of such as wash in them with a Golden colour and make Gold Rings more beautifull Aniger that runs out of Lapithum a Mountain of Arcadia will nourish no fish in it till it receive Acidan and those that go then out of it into Aniger are not edible but they in Acidan are Pausanias Agrigentinum a Lake of Sicily will beare those things that do not swim in the waters In Aethiopia there is one so thin that it will not carry up leaves that fall from the next Trees In the lake Asphaltiâ—es a man bound hand and foot cannot sink The cause is held to be the great quantity of Salt Hieronymus Florentinus saw a Bankrupt bound and cast headlong from the Tower into it and it bore him up all the night Posidonius observed that bricks in Spain made of Earth with which their Silver plate is rub'd did swim in the waters Cleon and Goon were two Fountains in Phrygia either of their waters made men cry There were two in the fortunate Island they that tasted of one laught till they died
the other was the remedy for them Anauros of Thessaly and Boristhenes send out no vapour nor exhalation many refer the cause of it to its mixture others seek it other-where Agricola l. 2. de effl ex terr c. 17. saith In what part of the Rivers the Channels in the Fords have no veins and fibres by that they can breath forth no exhalations In the snows of Mount Caucasus hollow Clods freez and contain good water in a membrane there are Beasts there that drink this water which is very good and runs forth when the membranes are broken Strab. in Geograph Nilus makes women so fruitfull that they will have 4 and 6 at one venter Pliny in Histor. There is a Well of water that makes the inhabitants of the Alps to have swollen throats Lang. l. 5. Epist. 43. But in field Rupert neer to Argentina there is a water said to be that makes the drinkers of it troubled with Bronchocele they seem to be infected with quicksilver for this is an enemy to the brain and nervs for it not only sends back flegme to the glandulous parts of the head and neck but that which is heaped up in the head it throws down upon the parts under it Sebizius de acidul s. 1. dict 6. Corol. 1. thes 12. Diana a River of Sicily that runs to Camerina unlesse a chast woman draw its water it will not mingle with Wine Solinus C. 10. Styx in Arcadia drank of kills presently it penetrates and breaks all yet it may be contained in the horns of one kind of Asse Seneca l. 3. natur c. 25. Two Rivers runs into Niger a River in Africa one is reddish the other whitish Barrens Histor. dec 1. l. 3. c. 8. If any man drink of both he will be forced to Vomit both up but if any man drink but of one he shall Vomit leasurely but when they are both run into Niger and a man drink them mingled he shall have no desire to Vomit Narvia is a River of Lithuania so soon as Serpents tast of the water they give a hiss and get away Cromer descript Polon l. 1. A Fountain of Sardinia in the Mediterranean keeps the length and shortnesse of dayes and runs accordingly In the Island of Ferrum one of the Canaries there is no water the Ayr is fiery the ground dry and man and beast are sad for want of water But there is a Tree the kind is unknown the leaves are long narrow and allways green A Clowd allwaies surrounds it whereby the leaves are so moystned that most pure liquour runs continually from it which the inhabitants fetch setting vessells round the Tree to take it in Bertius in descript Canariar Sea-waters if they be lukewarm they portend tempests before two days be over and violent Winds Lemnius de occult l. 2. c. 49. In England nere New-Castle there is a lake called Myrtous part whereof is frozen in Summer Thuan. in Histor. But I have done with these Authours have more if any man desire it especially Claudius Vendilinus whom I name for honour sake if he seek for the wonders of Nilus Artic. 7. Of some Floods or Waters and of the Universall Deluge THe Floods were signs of Gods anger and so much the more as that was greater and mens sins more grievous The greatest was that we call the generall Deluge which began about the end of the year of the World 1656. All the bars of the Channels were broken and for 40 dayes a vaste quantity of water was poured down Also the Fountains of the great Deep were cut asunder so that the Waters increased continually for 150 dayes and passed above the highest Mountains 15 Cubits At length they abated by degrees for after 70 dayes the tops began to appear The Inhabitants of the New World say they had it from their Ancestours Those of Peru say that all those Lands lay under waters and that men were drowned except a few who got into woodden Vessels like Ships and having provision sufficient they continued there till the waters were gone Which they knew by their dogs which they sent forth of doors and when the dogs came in wet they knew they were put to swim but when they returned dry that the waters were gone August Carat But they of Mexico say that five Suns did then shine and that the first of them perished in the waters and men with it and whatsoever was in the earth These things they have described in Pictures and Characters from their Ancestors giving credit to Plato's Flood which was said to have hapned in the Island Atlantis Lupus Gomara But Lydiat ascribes the cause of that universal Deluge to a subterraneal fire in a hotter degree increasing the magnitude by rarefaction so long as it could not gâ—t out of its hollow places Genesis seems to demonstrate it For the Fountains of the great Deep are said to be broken open and that a wind was sent forth after 40 dayes and the waters were quieted We must understand a wind from a dry Exhalation which a subterraneous fire much increased had most abundantly raised out of the deep of the Sea which was then thrust forth of them and did increase the motion of the ayr that it laid hold of together with the revolution of the Heavens and the vehemency of the Firmament But there were other miraculous Deluges besides this CHAP. IV. Of the Originall of Fountains Sea by passages under the Earth The Sea alone is sufficient to supply all Springs and when we see that it no wayes increaseth by the Rivers that run into it it is apparent that they run to their Fountains by secret channels But the question is of the manner how they ascend Socrates ascribes it to the Tossing of them Pliny to the wind l. 21. c. 65. Bodin l. 2. Theatr. to the weight of the Earth driving forth the water Scaliger to the Bulk of the Sea others to vapours redoubled into themselves It is a hard matter to define all things nor is it our purpose But because Thom Lydiat an English Man hath written most acutely of this Subject we will set down his opinion here contracted into a few Propositions I. The Rolling of the Water is not the cause of its ascending to the superficies of the Earth For there is no cause for its tossing and wherefore then should it not at length stand levell II. To be driven with the wind is not the cause 1. For it seems not to be raised in the Sea by a fixed Law of Nature but by way of Tempest 2. The Channels are winding and should carry it rather to the sides than to the superficies 3. If a contrary wind cannot do so much in any water what then can the wind do here Also if there were any receptacles for the waters forced upwards Miners those that dig in mines would have found them out as Vallesius saith III. The weight of the Earth squeesing out the water is not the Cause For the Earth
Mountain the rage was no lesse on the top of it whence there rose such a shour of Ashes in the Country of Catana that Fields and Mountaines were hid by it And the North wind then blowing plenty of them with a brimstony smell were brought as far as the Island of Malta which is a 160 miles distant from the Hole Amongst the greatest Torrents that is reckoned which hapned a little before our days they are the words of Bembus in his dialogue of Aetna that ran as far as Catana and wasted great part of the City by fire and that Haven of which Virgil writes And that great Harbour where no wind could blow Near thundring Aetna lyes some thing below The torrents of Aetna have so filled up the Haven now that you would say VIRGIL committed an errour to speak of a great Harbour where is none to be seen almost Anno 1537. on the Calends of May all Sicily for 12 dayes together began to thunder like Canon shott off frequently The noise was heard not only at Catana and neighbouring places but at Palermo Lylibeum Sacca Agrigentum and allmost in the whole Island whereby a little Earthquak arose that shook the houses When these hideous sounds increased on the third of the Ides of May unusuall Caves were opened in Aetna out of which so great a quantity of fiery matter was cast forth that in four dayes it went 15 miles and burnt down all things it met with and run as farr as the Monastery of St. Nicolas de Arenis where leaving the Monastery untouched it invaded Nivolasum and Monpelavium two Towns and allmost destroy'd them The upper hole of the Mountain shortly after for three dayes cast out so much black ashes that as far as Consentia in Calabria the Towns were filled with ashes and they were so scattered by the winds upon the Seas that for 300 miles distant from Sicily the ships were fowled by the ashes afterwards Aetna began to rore mightily and as it did rore the upper top of it was broken off and swallowed in the Cave Though the fire of Aetna be so terrible yet the land there is so fruitfull that what Pliny speaks of Campania l. 3. c. 6. we may say the same of the neighbouring parts From this border begin the hilâ—s that beare grapes the juyce whereof is famous in all lands and the great contest between Bacchus noble for drunkennesse as the Antients said and Ceres In that wooddy Countrey there are spacious places saith Fazellus rer sic dec 1 l. 2. c. 4. that are very fruitfull for Corn and there is so good pasture for Cattle that unlesse you let them often blood in their ears they are in danger by plethory moreover the fluent matter that is cast forth of Aetna by this fire growes so hard that for a good depth it changeth the surface of the ground into a stone and when they would come at the ground they must cut the stones For the stone being melted in the Holes or Caves and cast forth the humour that swims on the top is black mire running down from the Mountain and when it growes together it becomes as hard as a Milstone holding the same colour it had when it ran and ashes are made of the burnt stones as of burnt Wood now as Rue is nourished with Wood-ashes so it is credible that the Vines flourish by the ashes of Aetna And thus far for Aetna Hecla is a Mountain in Islandia not farr from the Sea somtimes it casts forth flame somtimes fiery water after that black ashes and Pumex stones in such abundance that it darkneth the Sun yet somtimes the Mountain is wonderfull quiet especially when the West wind blows· An. 1553. the 19 of November about midnight a flame appeared in the Sea by Hecla that lightned the whole Island An hour after the Island shaked then there followed a terrible noise that if all the Guns for Warr were shot off they were nothing to this terrible noise Dithnarus Bleskenius writes thus We had thought the frame of the World would now be dissolved and that the last day was come Camer Horar subcis cent 3. c. 17. It was found afterwards that the Sea was gone back from that place two miles it was all left dry An. 1580 it vomited out fire with such a noise that for 80 miles men thought the great Guns were discharged The common people think the souls of the damned are there tormented Georgius Bruno in theatro Mundi The End of the Second Classis OF Naturall VVonders The Third Classis Wherein are the Wonders of the Meteors WHat then Is it better think you to perish by discontent of Mind or by Thunder Therefore rise stronger against the threatenings of Heaven and when the World is all on fire think that thou hast nothing to lose in so great a Masse Seneca quaest natur l. 2. c. 59. CHAP. I. Of Subterraneous Exhalations MEteors are made of Exhalations the Sun and the rest of the Stars draw them forth and the subterraneall fire is the worker of very many of them We shall speak nothing of them These are some hurtfull some safe as may be proved by many Examples At the foot of the Mountain Tritulum Halveatum there are waters you must ascend by 43 degrees to a place of sweating It is in length three miles the more you are lifted up above them the hotter you are the more you descend into them the cooler Those draw flegme from the parts and cure distillations from the head There is a hot Bath near the hot waters that run forth of the Lake Agnanum The ditches are covered with Turves of grasse and stones being removed a hot vapour is sent out that makes them sweat that receive it Out of Avernus a Lake of Campania before Agrippa had cut down the Woods that covered it and laid it open the Exhalations were so thick that came forth that the birds were killed that flew over it At the Lake of Agnanum in Italy there is a Mountain in which there is a narrow Cave it declines moderately downwards being 8 foot long if you touch the earth of it with your foot or hand it feels hotter than the rest it choaks any living creature that is cast in by the venomous blast deprives them of sense and motion though you pull it out presently but cast the same presently into the next Lake it is a wonder how it restores their life again Camer Cent. 7. Mirab mem 50. In the Island Ebusus Exhalations do so infect the ground that if they fall upon places where Serpents are the pestilent Creatures cannot endure them In the great places of refreshment at Baianum there is a ditch the water whereof sends forth such hot vapours that wax Candles will melt be put onâ— by them and they are so pernicious that men fall down dead therewith In Babylon there is a Cave also out of which riseth such a pestilent vapour that it kills all that draw it
her Therefore they were wont to make the Emperours Tents of Sea Calfs Skins And Suetonius writes that Augustus was so fearfull of Thunder and Lightning that he allwaies carried the same with him Severus the Emperour had a litter made of the same matter for the same purpose yet Vicomercatus ad 3. Meteoror c. 10. relates that the Bay Tree is somtimes stricken from Heaven and Conimbricense thinks this freedome it hath to be but imaginary but only by an instinct of nature they foreshew Thunder I need not speak much of the Thunder-bolt kept in houses of hearb and Candles at the mâ—re solemn feasts purged with holy water and of the ringing of Bells who sees not but that these things are superstitious Some of them say Remig. l. 1. daemonol c. 26 that ringing of Bells is uneffectuall and uselesse if any one of them when it is purged beare the name of the Priests Concubine For if that sound do rarify the Ayre which yet spoken absolutely is false for it neither dissipates the Clouds that are neerer to us nor doth it fly right upwards but in many places it comes forth obliquely by the Windows nor doth it come to the Cloud it were better that only the great Guns should be shot off and only the greatest Bells Rung Constant observation shews that Dogs Cats and Goats are most obnoxious to be Thunder struck Hence it is that if a Dog be by a man in an open field he will be frighted and lye between his feet Cl. Bortholinus casts the cause of it upon the Vapours breathing forth of these Creatures bodys which as a known matter and nutriment the Vapours for thunder follow especially if these Creatures be abroad that they may be freely carried into the open Ayre Hence it is that Cats are often stricken in the entry and who knows not that the Dogs and Goats smell strong And Cats send out such Plenty of Vapours by their pores that some men have fainted at their being present and the more noble Horses if they be hid in the Coach will sweat extreamly as experience teacheth Thunder seldom hapneth in the Winter For but very few or allmost no hot exhalations are lifted up yet Curtius l. 8. de Alex mentioneth that in the time of Alexander There was saith he allmost a continuall Thunder and the Thunder bolts seemed to fall in divers places then suddenly a shore of hayle was poured forth like a Torrent and force of cold froze this showre into Ice Olaâ—s l. â— c. 6. thinke that they are more vehement in Northern Climates for they kill Men and in the Kingdom of Mongall in Tartary they fall mingled with Snow In Brasile Thunder bolts fall but seldome but such lightnings that they seem lighter than the Sun Joseph Ac. sta Anno 1560. In the time of Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher we read that the Enemy was stricken with Thunder at the prayers of the Christian Souldiers whence the Christian Legion was called the Thundring Legion presently saith the Emperour of them in Epist. as they lay upon their Faces and prayed to a God I know not a cold shower fell upon us but upon our Enemies hail mingled with thunder that we found immediately that the hand of the mighty God assisted us CHAP. VI. Of the Winds Artic. 1. Of the Originall of Winds ARistot 2. Meteor c. 4. saith That the Sun is the cause of the winds by drawing up the moysture that is upon the surface of the Earth and by heating doth dry the Earth it self Lydiat likes not this opinion For the Earth moystned being dryed affords but little matter for winds For the Earth drinks in no more rain than may quench its thirst and which it may change into a dry nature from whence comes no Exhalation of the same allowance much goes to rain which is no small part of it What then shall be left for the vast winds wherefore inward heat is pleaded for And truly in Winter the Earth sends forth a smoky exhalation In the Southern parts Winds arise from Snow A breath riseth from Lakes and standing Pools and storms from the Sea though it be calm whence is this but that the Earth breathes out vapours which break forth through the depth of waters The Chymical Instrument will shew this which they use for bellowes Sennert l. 4. Epitom c. 3. A Globe is made of Copper that it may be fill'd with water and then shut a pipe with a small hole is made of one side the Glob fill'd with water is set to the fire and the pipe for bellowes is set to another As the Globe growes hot and the water rarifies the Ayr continually breathes forth and serves for bellows till all the water be consumed Winds are then bred when heat burns the moyst Earth The Sun by drying openeth the pores and the Ayr helps by its motion If it rise from the Sea the Sea at firsâ— calm making a muttring noise signifies that an exhalation that is matter for wind is already then bred in the bowels of it some fishes sport some fasten themselves to rocks then the Sea swelling a little shewes that the exhalation newly bred seeks a passage forth then when it fails it shews it is come to the superficies but in small quantity then the blasts breaking forth with all their force lift up the waves before them and cause Winds and Tempests Artic. 2. Of the Kinds and Effects of Winds THere are many kinds of Winds which were chiefly found out by Navigation and the operations of them according to the difference of their blasts and properties The North-East wind drawes clowds to it Circeius a Southern wind hinders that the North wind be not mingled with the smell of plants and the force of it is so great that it will overthrow an armed man and lift ships up from the water into the Ayr and carry away Windmills with the stones house and men to some other place Pliny l. 2. c. 47. Gel. l. 2. c. 22. Olaus l. 1. c. 4. and 2. c. 3. There is a whirlwind that causeth such Tempests to those that sail out of the Country of China to Jupan that it is a miracle to escape shipwrack In the Country of St. Vincent it roots up Woods in Hispaniola it will take up men and carry them a furlong If they arise in the Island of Ormuth they kill those they meet with heat and they part the flesh of those that are killed from the bones as boyling water doth To avoid the danger they hide themselves in the water up to the head Ovetan l. 6. Polus l. 1. c. 5. Women are wonderfully prone to lust when their privities are obvious to the South wind but the North wind is said to be fit for generation whence it is that some believe it will raise men dying with its blast Rhodigin l. 54. c. 4. l. 15. c. 23. In Lesbos at Mytilene when the South wind blowes men are sick they cough when the
North-west wind blowes the North wind makes them well again In Tercera it eats Iron and stones Bertius in Geograph Amongst the rest are the Etesia that are very moderate winds every year two dayes after the rising of the dog-star they are wont to blow 40 dayes They temper the heat with their blast and cool the Summer and defend us from the burthen of the hot moneths They rise at 3. of the clock of the day thence they are called sleepy winds and they cease at night It is likely they are bred by great heat melting the Snow that yet remains in the Northern parts It is credible that the Earth being freed from Snow and uncovered they will blow the freer The Ancients sacrificed to the winds to please them Herodotus saith That a Temple in Ilissum was built to Boreas They call'd them at Athens Boreasmi who kept the Feasts of Boreas We believe P. Victor that at Rome there was a Temple for Tempest Rhodigin l. 20. c. 25. CHAP. VII Of the Earth-quake Artic. 1. Of the rising of an Earthquake THe Ancients believed that the Earth moved by waters fluctuating in the Caves of the Earth Whence they called Neptune Earth-shaker and mover Gell. l. 2. c. 28. Others thought the wind in the surface of the Earth returning into the hollow caves of it did shake it Others again that the Sun kept the vapours within the ground and they seeking passage to come forth did wander where they could when they found none Reason and Experience are against it There is in the West part of Spain a Mountain of wonderfull height with many hollow Caves Scalig. Exerc. 38. waters fall down in them with so great noise that they are heard five miles yet there is no Earthquake there nor yet is the wind or Ayr that goes under very great it is dispersed in the largenesse of the Channels and the diverticles it finds going farther it is stopt Mineral operations shew this For they make mighty bellowes to draw the ayr lest they should be choked for want of it The contest of winds doth nothing for that rather tends to the sides or flyes upwards by its leightnesse and at the first hindrance they fly from the Earth like a whirlwind It is uncertain whether the Sea can stop the passages there are seldom any such great Caves by the Sea nor can that go in at once but it will be thrust back again The Sun cannot more easily exercise its force upon the Earth and beget an Exhalation than he can bring it forth being begotten for the Sun beams operate noâ— but by resistance Whilest they heat and dry they open the same because exhalations ascend more strongly to that place which is neer One in respect of continuity followes another but howsoever they enter in they easily come out of the Earth and more easily than they can shake it for in Mines where the powder finds but a chink when it is fired it is lost labour Wherefore Exhalation bred from fire under the Earth and shut up in the bowels of the Earth causeth an Earthquake And that is apparent by this For before an Earthquake Well-waters will not onely boyl but be more troubled and brimstony vapours come forth From whence The like vapours are tossed in the bowels of the Earth Pliny l. 2. Artic. 2. Of the place time and effects of an Earth-quake THose places are subject to Earth-quakes which can easily take in wind Solid places will not admit it sandy places mixed with lime do easily discuss it they want receptacles for winds Champion places have no Caves Yet the whole Earth is never shaken for the Vapours included have no proportion to the Globe of the Earth If it should happen it must be ascribed to divine power which nature would seem to challenge to her self If you consider the duration it differs as the resistance is few Vapours are sooner discussed many last longer and rage a greater time Senec. naturalâ— l. 6. c. 3. Campania trembled many dayes Livy writes that at that time when L. Cornelia and Q. Minucius neer Consuls the Earth-quakes were so frequent that men were weary not only of it but of all businesse The same Author sayes that an Earth-quake lasted 40 days others say one hath lasted two yeares and returned again and again Livy l. 44. l. 45. Aristot. l. 2. Meteor c. 8. Plin. l. 2. c. 82. Such is the condition of the effects of it that those that hear of it will be astonished at it and those that see it dye Oft times it doth not devour Houses Cities or whole famelies only but whole Nations and Countries somtimes the Earth falls upon them somtimes it takes them into its deep jaws and leaves not so much whereby it may appear that what is not now ever was Seneca L. 6. natur c. 1. The ground covers somtimes the most noble Cities without leaving any mark of their formeâ— being when as the great hollow Caves in the Earth are forced and shaken with winds and fall down oft times in the Sea a hollow pit opening drinks up the waters on the Land Rivers that both fish and shipping sink into it On the otherside the Earth lifted up into a high tumour hath caused Mountains on land and Islands at Sea somtimes the course of Rivers hath been changed that hilly ground having been removed on that side that they formerly ran Histories are full of these calamities The last yeare of Nero fields and Olive Trees that the high way passed between in the Country of the Mâ—rrucinum were transported to the other side L. Marcius and Sextus Julius being Consuls in the Country of the Mutinenses two Mountains fell together with a mighty noise Plin. l. 2. and l. 16. c. 40. Many Villages were then beaten down and Cattel killed In Parthia there is a place called Ragai from the clifts where many Towns and Villages 2000 were overwhelmed At Cajeta in Italy there is a Mountain toward the South a part whereof an Earthquake so divided that one would believe the division was made by the art of Man the Sea runs under it with a great noise Agricol in reb quae efflu ex terra The Houses of Helice and Bura two Towns in the Sinus of Corinth did appeare in the Sea In the Island Aenania a Town was so taken in that there was no appearance of it left Not far from Ptolemais the Waves of the Sea were carried into the deep and so lifted up themselves that they appeared like a great Mountain and afterwards they were carryed to the land and drownd the Army of Tryphon When Cneius Octavius and C. Scribonius were Consuls the River at Velia brake down the bridges and threw the banks of the River into the waters drove away the stones that were in the Market place in Town and Field it shook the Churches which a few days after fell down By an Earthquake the City of Lacedemon fell all down when the Mountain Taygetus was broken
inflammations of the eys it was as cold as Snow But Mindererus l. de Peste writes That when he went to visit sick persons and had swallowed a small piece of it he perceived nothing within him but like a very small fire CHAP. X. Of Amber or Electrum SOme think it to be the juice of Trees but amisse There stand no Trees by the Sea that Gums drop from them falling into the Sea of which Amber is made It is more certain that it is a thick juice of the Earth The most part is found in Borussia also in Curlandia on the part of Sarmatia but not so plentiful It is taken in nets like fish When the North-west or West wind blowes hard at Sea they all run to the shore with casting nets of yarn in their hands Agricol in l. de Fossil The winds being allayed but the Sea flowing when the waves return back they draw the Amber from the bottom and an herb like pennyroyall that growes in it When they have taken it they carry it to the Magistrates who give them the weight of it in salt Every Moneth it is said to be sold for ten thousand German Crowns At Buchania in Schetland a masse came to shore greater than a horse The ignorant Clowns used it for Frankincense Hector Boetius in histor Scot. Precious figures are made of it the Romans were so taken with it that a little picture of it was more than the price of a living man Plin. Histor. natural Rubb'd it drawes straws if it be not smeared with oyl or water Some seek the cause in a dry spirit But Scaliger Exerc. 104. s. 12. saw it draw a green Lettice some in the super elementary quality others think it comes by accident Fernel l. 3. Med. c. 4. For it hath piercing and sharp spirits and withal glutinous and fat Being attenuated by rubbing they wax hot and they easily pierce into light things as they break forth Libavius in lib. singular When they meet with cold things they congele congealed they return toward their beginning for the heat is driven back by its contrary If you make a fine powder of chaff and iron the Amber draws forth the chaff the Loadstone the iron In the shore at Puceca of former times they digged up some of ash colour which when it was broken with iron it drew unto it leaves that were upon the ground and two foot from it when they were blown up into the Ayr The white smells the best Because of the Plague Chambers are perfumed with the scrapings of it the sent lasts for 3. dayes every thin piece of it burnt in fire flames away CHAP. XI Of Ambergreece Jet and Earthy Bitumen AMbergreece is a Juice in Asia amongst the Moors Some think it growes like Mushrooms out of the Earth under the Sea Others say that the Cod-fish doth greedily follow after it and kills it self by devouring it which the Fisheâ—s knowing taking him in their Nets when he is dead they unbowel him Maâ—hiolus in Dioscor l. 1. The truth is it runs out of the Fountains into the Sea and being hardned there it is cast upon the shore It is good for the brain that is cold Libav l. 3. Singul. It may hurt the heart unlesse the cause be cold that molests it namely if the spirits be hot and too much attenuated Heurn l. 2. Medic. A Plaister of Amber is good for bald and weak heads from a cold cause He that carrieth it after a little use perceiveth it not The weaker a woman is and the Matrix moveable the more easily is it disquieted by Musk and Amber and her head will ake Infused in wine it will make men drunk Black Bitumen hardned in the Sea is called Jet which the floods use to cast upon the shores of the Aestyi with Amber Earthen vessels that are glazed with it are not defaced Plin. l. 36. c. 19. When it is burned it smells like brimstone It is a wonder that it kindleth with water but is extinguished with oyl It discovers the Falling-sicknesse and Virginity by the smell of it drank by a Virgin fasting it causeth her to make water Dalechamp in Notis ad l. c. Nicander in his Theriacks calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Interpreter expounds that Jet which is found great and of a pale colour oâ— the shore at the Town of Ganges in Lycia Strabo saith That creeping things fly from the sent of Jet It is called Earthy Bitumen otherwise burning stone because it will flame and is good for Iron-Smiths Furnaces It is called Ampelitis because it kills little Worms called Caipas Also Pharmacitis because it is good in Physick I saw it dug up in Scotland So in the Jurisdiction of Leids where if it be hard they make Chapelets of it to say their prayers upon Hitherto belong the bituminous Furrs that being dryed make the Dutch fuel Also theâ— are dug forth in Collaum a Province of Peru which Monardus describes in these words In Collaum a Province of Peru there is a place all bare no Tree nor plant growes upon it because the Earth is bituminous out of which the Indians extract a liquour good for many diseases The way to extract it is this They cut the ground into Turfs and in an open place they lay it upon rods or greater â—eeds putting vessels under it to receive it for by the heat of the Sun this Bitumen melts then the dry turfs remain without liquor fit to make fires Moreover on the left hand in the shore of the Sinus Pucicus not far from the Monastery there are found clots of congealed Bitumen very hard about the bignesse of Eggs. They all burn being kindled Agricol in l. de Fossil Near these there grow pale-coloured shrubs that smell like fish they are 3 or 4 hands breadths high They have no roots and are like little dishes the Greeks call them Lepadas they stick to the clods CHAP. XII Of Corall COrall otherwise Stone-tree It comes from a juice that is stony when it growes under the Sea water it is a small Tree green and soft bearing Berries like the Cornus Tree in shape and magnitude but soft and white it presently growes hard before it is cut it appears all green Sometimes also the stalks of one Corall Tree are partly red partly white and partly black In the Mediterranean they gather great quantity of it and those of Massilia go yearly to fish for it and draw it from the bottom of the Sea with Nets Dispens Chymic l. 2 c. 49. Linschot part 3. orient Ind. c. 1. At the Cape Bon Esperance he saith there are Rocks on which Coral grows of all colours The Indians weare it because Southsayers think it avoids dangers The vulgar thinks it can preserve their Children from Witches This is superstitious but certain it is it will quench thirst being extreme cold Mercurial l. 3. de curand affect Tied to the neck it drives away troublesome dreams and stills the nightly feares of Children
many horse fought against that City Strabo l. 12. A green Palm-Tree was seen to grow up amongst the Tralles in the Temple of Victory under Caesar's Statue where the stones joyned and it was of a great bignesse Valer. l. 1. c. 6. Also at Rome in the Capitol in the head some explain that to be the top of the house twice in the War with Perseus did a Palm-Tree spring forth presaging Victory and Triumph When this was thrown down with Tempests in the same place a Fig-Tree grew up When M. Messalus and C. Cassius were Censors A. P. Sulpicius being Pro-Consul Letters were brought from Macedonia with news That a Bay-Tree grew up in the stern of a Galley Lastly the year before this in Silesia a little Tree in the battlements of the walls of the Church was changed into a Palm-Tree Religion was changed after that Not without being revenged for the change of the Species gives us hope of it The End of the Fifth Classis OF Miracles of Nature The Sixth Classis In which are contained the Wonders of Birds Seneca Natur. quaest l. 2. c. 32. ALso those things are not out of our power which are immoveable or for their swiftnesse equall to all the World are like to things without motion CHAP. 1. Of the Eagle THe Eagle challengeth the first place nor that it is the best dish at the Table for none will eat it but because it is the King of Birds It is of the kind of birds of prey The right foot of it is greater than the left the brain is so hot that mingled with Hemlock juice and drank in powder it will make one mad It drinks not because it seems the blood of what it preys upon sufficeth it But in old age when the Beak is crooked with drynesse it preserves it self by drinking Aelian They have been seen a cubit in largenesse and some young one whose wings stretched out would reach 7. els The Claws were bigger than a great mans fingers and the thighes greater than a Lyons Gesner saith that was seen at a place between Dreson ond Mysnia when it lyeth down it takes a stone called Aeâ—ites which because they grow so hot as if they boyled doth temper their heat When the young ones are hatcht she holds them in her Talons against the Sun and having proved them to be legitimate she takes them on her wings and carries them the strongest of them when she hath them aloft she lets them fall and then she flies and meets them and takes them up again When they are old enough she drives them forth of her nest and quarter The female is so falacious that being trod 30 times in a day if the male come to her again she will run to him It is so quick-sighted that flying over the Sea out of mans view it will discern the smallest fish And as for its smell it will flie to carcases 500 miles distant It roars like a Bull but the young ones are mute because their tongue is hindred by moisture It is an enemy to the Cranes therefore when they fly over Mount Taurus from Cilicia they take stones in their mouthes and stop their clarying and flye over it in the night When the sight bill and wings fail her she flyes above the Clowds and there by the Suns heat she recovers her sight She when she is become extream hot plunges into the water then she flies to her nest grows feavorish casts her feathers is fed by her young ones and renews her self but sooner if she can find Serpents to feed on CHAP. II. Of the Hawke THe Hawke is of divers magnitudes according to its Sex and Country The females are the greater because their heat is lesse Calent in Epist. It hath a great heart that enclines toward the breast with a blunt point the Milt is so small that it can hardly be seen Aristot. de part animal c. 38. It is full of feathers which when it is young it casts 4. times It is not very generative for the over great heat thickneth the seed also the moysture of it is sent to the feathers the Tallens and legs yet it is so venereous that the female will return 30 times a day if she be required Alb. l. 10. c. 8. She flies from Carrion and if it come to a mans carcase it will not feed thereon She drinks when she can light on no prey for blood She flyes sometimes so high that she cannot be seen In the Ayr she will turn on her back and stretches out her tail back and wings and lyes upon them Aelian It hath wonderful ingenuity The bird she takes in the Evening she holds under her feet and when the Sun riseth she lets it flie away and if she meets it again she will never pursue it When her eyes grow dim she seeks for Hawkwort and rubs it and with the juice of it she anoints her eyes Aelian l. 2. de anim c. 43. She seems to lament the death of Man and will cast the earth on his eyes and if he be not buried she will throw Earth to bury him The thigh bone of it put toward gold doth draw it to it with delight Aelian l. 4. c. 43. Pigeons so soon as they hear its noise fly away hens eggs if they sit will be spoyled small birds are so frighted at the sight of her that you may take them off the hedges with your hands The chief disease she hath is the molting of her feathers It happens before Nilus overflowes the fields that is in August When the South wind blowes they stretch forth their wings and grow hot with the heat of the wind when this is wanting they fan themselves with their wings in the warm Sun By this warmth the pores are opened the old feathers fall and new grow up The Aegyptians thought they lived 700 years CHAP. III. Of the Assalon and Heron. ASsalon is called Smerillus and Merillus It will so pursue Larks that it will follow them into a hot Furnace or pit of water or to mens cloaths Cressent l. 10. c. 13. It fights with the Crowes and Foxes breaking the eggs of the one and killing the Cubs of the other To kill Herons in England is a capital Crime wherefore there are many of them in that place They are so continent that they are sad 40 dayes when they are upon venereous actions Glycas l. 1. Animal If they dung upon a Hawk they corrupt and burn its feathers When a showring is coming they flie above the Clowds They swallow shell-fish shells and all but when they think their heat hath opened them they cast them up again and eat the fish They lie in wait for fish very cunningly for they stand so against the Suns beams that their shadow may not be seen to drive them away But the Countrey men of Colen say they have such force that if they put but a foot into the water they will draw the fish to them as with a bait
hatched CHAP. IX Of the Feldifare and Goat-Sucker THe Feldifare makes her nest in the thickets the walls are mosse wooll downy herbs the ground-work is heath They have six young ones and they are so unlike their old ones that they have scarce any mark like them Because he flyes he doth a little imitate the other Birds notes he catcheth those that fly to him and is easily taken himself for when he sees a bird shut up in a cage he flyes upon it to invade it The Caprimulgus goes into the folds of shepherds and sucks the Goats teats for milk the udder loseth its force by this injury and the Goats that are so suckt grow blind Pliny l. 10. c. 40. He sees little in the day but is quick-sighted at night Arist. histor l. 9. c. 30. In Candie it makes such an horrible noise that it will fright the Inhabitants Bellonius CHAP. X. Of the Cuckow THe Cuckow is a Bird of a very cold constitution of body whence she is so fearful that all the birds offend her Plin. l. 10. c. 9. she breeds in other birds nests especially the Woodculver's the hedge-Sparrow's the Lark the Red-breast and the Nightingall If their nests be empty she will not turn in there but if there be eggs she breaks some and sucks them and layes her own in the room in some nests they say she breaks them all Arist. l. 6. c. 7. The young ones hatcht and known by the bird are said to be beaten and to fly away to their own dam. Note the goodnesse of nature they say she layes in those Birds nests that feed on common meats she feeds on Worms Insects and Corn. The Grashoppers before the dog-dayes when they hear the Cuckow sing run upon her in troops and they get under her wings and kill her Isidor l. 12. c. 8. They are said to be bred of Cuckow spittle In winter she casts her feathers and changeth her colour Arist. 9. histor c. 43. In a Mountain of Greece where many Cuckowes breed it is said that a Holly Tree growes there that what living Creature soever sits upon it is glewed fast as with birdlime except the Cuckow Plin. l. 30. c. 10. In what place soever you first hear the Cuckow sing if you make a circle about your right foot and dig up that compasse of earth no fleas will breed wheresoever that is spread CHAP. XI Of the Crow IT is certain that in the New World the Crowes are white and Alphonsus King of Cicily had one They say they grow white if the eyes be anointed with the brain or fat of a Cat and be put under a white 〈…〉 in a cold place They flock together to a fruitful field but two at once where the field is not fruitfull He hath many notes they say 64 the proper note is â—roking which he makes being changed with no passion or variety of weather He longs for raw flesh and corrupt and that dyed of it self if he refuse this it is an ill omen as Thucidides observed in the Plague at Athens Julius Caesar Moderatus Ariminensis learned by experience that he vomits up again the bones and the small feet Hyginus denyes that he can drink when he eath eaten figs because then his throat is pierced thorow He casts off his young ones if they be white though they write that seven dayes after they are hatcht they become black Cassiodorus thinks out of the Psalmist that they then live upon dew A tame Crow at Erfurd took money off of the Table and kept it and did so exactly call Conrade the Cook when he was hungry that you would believe it were a mans voice then he pricked holes in a Musick-book that he found as if he understood Musick Scalig. Eâ—erc â—37 Barbarus observed that he carried fire in his mouth when Lightning fell Some think he catcheth sparks of fire instead of pieces of flesh when exhalations take fire in Lightning He is said to live 180 years Indeed in a City of France Corvatum one lived 100 years Albertus 9. hist. c. 10. A certain Physitian that was famous in Pliny his days burnt two Crowes to ashes taken out of the nest in the moneth of March and being made into fine powder gave them to people for the Epilepsie one dram weight twice or thrice in a day with water of the decoction of Castorium CHAP. XII Of the Rook and Chrysaethos IN Britany there is abundance of Rooks because the Sea washeth it on all sides and in the grounds that are moyst there breed abundance of Worms for their food Cardanus Ludovicus Rhodiginus saw a white one with a black head not far from the walls of Rhodigium l. 17. Antiq. lect c. 11. He loves Nuts chiefly which if he cannot break he lets them fall upon stones Aelian l. 3. c. 9. They do not inconsiderately couple for when one dyeth the other lives single alwayes after When Storks fly beyond Sea this leads them It is so industrious that Merthes King of Egypt had one that would carry letters whither he sent him Porphyr de abstin ab animal When she is slain and remains dead till she stincks she drawes mice if you lay her in a place where you may kill them Gesner The Chrysaethus hath a tongue like a mans armed on both sides toward the roots with two horny hooked appendices The length is sometimes from the beak to the clawes four hands breadth and a half the breadth is eight when the wings are stretched out It layes but one egg if it lay two one is rotten CHAP. XIII Of the Pigeon THe Pigeon when she layes two eggs the one egg will bring a male the other a female but because the heat is greater in the male he is said to be first hatcht Paul à Castro When the young ones are brought forth she thrusts the salt Earth into their mouthes which she hath first fitted in her own to prepare them to receive some meat and to implant fruitfulnesse into them and to raise their appetite Athen. 9. hist. c. 24. Many things prove them to be apt to learn One of them pecked corn out of Mahomet's ear When Leyden was besieged some of them carried Letters Lipsius The same was done at the siege of the Buss. Divers men use divers remedies to keep them in the Dove-houses and to allure others thither Some stir Man's blood up and down in an earthen vessell for a quarter of an hour with Pease and then anoint Pigeons with it and cast the pease to them to eat Gesner Some hang the skull of an old man in the Dove-house Albertus Some hang a piece of the halter that a man was hang'd with on rheir windows Pallad l. 3. c. 44. Pliny l. 11. c. 37 writes That there is poyson in mans teeth that will kill young unfeather'd Pigeons We have it from the secrets of the Egyptians that such as feed on Pigeons flesh will never be infected with the Plague Hence in times of
fable for they could hardly sleep there when their senses are bound up For all their exercise is a tonick motion It is like to that That there is a hole in their back in the muscles where the Female that hath a hollow belly lays her eggs Aldrovandus who saw these Manucodiatae never found any such thing And that is like this that they feed on dew because they flye so high that they cannot alwaies meet with Dew But that must alwaies be restored that alwaies wasts Bellonius saith that the Janissari people of India deck themselves with their feathers They think that under their protection they shall be out of danger in the head of the battel The Mahumetans Marmin perswaded their Kings that they came from Paradise as tokens of the delights of that place The Cormorants are taken in the East to catch fish with In a certaine City saith Odoricus à Foro Julii scituate by the great River in the East we went to see our host fish I saw in his little ships Cormorants tied upon a perch and he had tied their throat with a string that they should not swallow the fish they took In every bark they set three great panniers one in the middle and at each end one then they let loose their Cormorants who presently caught abundance of fish which they put into the Panniers so that in a short time they fill'd them all Then mine â—ost took off the straps from their necks and let them fish for themselves when they were fulâ— they came back to their pearches and were tied up againe Scaliger writes that the same was done at Venice They put their heads deep into the water and perceive the change of the Ayre under the waves and when they perceive any tempest they flye to the land making a 〈…〉 Isidore l. 12. c. 7 Mizaldus saith that Vapours rise up from the waters that cause rainie Clowds and they cunningly observe it The liver of them boyld and eaten with Oyle and a little Salt is so present a remedy against the biting of a mad dog that the sick will presently desire water Aetius The same continued with Salt and drank with Hydromel two spoonfulls will drive forth the Second 〈…〉 Dioscorides CHAP. XXIV Of the Owl and Musket OWls were formerly plentifull in Athens in Gandie they neither breed nor will live brought thither Also in Mountain Countries of Helvetia there are none They sit close 60 dayes in Winter They are not hurt by fasting 9 dayes Plin. l. 10. c. 17. Eustatius says they see in the dark when the Moon is hid but hardly for want of a Medium Crescent l. 10. c. 16. yet they cannot see in the day by reason of too dry and thin substance of the humour which â—s dissipated by the fiery substance of the light He makes a double noise the one is Tou Tou the other noise they call Howling She is at great enmity vvith Crovvs Pausanias reports that the Crovvs snatcht avvay the picture of an Ovvl that vvas to be sold and earings of Gold out of ones hand that vvere made like Dates It is commonly observed that if the Ovvl forsake the Woods it signifies a barren yeare Ovvls egs given for three days in Wine to drunkards vvill make them loath it Plin. The Musket in Winter sits in Woods that use to be lopt and comes not to her place till Sun set When she looks upon any thing the black of the pupill of her eye grovvs greater then ordinary We read of this bird in the Salick lavvs that he vvho should steal ouâ— if he be taken must pay 120 denarii CHAP. XXV Of Onocrotalus and Rhinoceros ONocrotalus is from the tip of his bill to the bottom of his feet ten spans and more in magnitude Aldrovandus His vvings stretched forth make ten spans under his lower mandibule there is a receptacle like a bladder as long as it that hangs down at length And that is so great that a very great man thrust in his leg as far as his knee with a boot on into his Jaws and pull'd it out again without harme Perottus Sanctius reports that a little Blackmore was found in one At Mechlin there was one of 80 yeares old and for some yeares he went before the camp of the Emperour Maximilian as if he would determine the place for them Afterwards he was fed by an old woman at the Kings cost who was allowed for him 4 Stivers the day she fed him 56 yeares when he was young he would somtimes fly so high into the Ayre that he seemed no greater than a Swallow Gesner Also the cubit bones of his wings were covered with a membrane out of which there arose 24 Tendons that were so firmely set into them that there was no way to part them Gesner writes that he heard he was wont to come once a yeare about Lausanna by the Lake Lemannus Rhinoceros is a bird whereof one was kild in the Ayre flying at what time the Christians conquered the Turk in a Sea fight The head was about two spans adorned with black tufts of feathers very long and that hung downwards The Beack is almost a span long bent backward like a bow A horn grows out of its forehead and sticks to the upper part of his Bill of a great magnitude For about the forehead it was a hands breadth Aldrovandus thinks it is Pliny his Tragopanada CHAP. XXVI Of the Parrot THe Antients knew but one kind of Parrots but those that have seen the Indies have found above a hundred kinds different in colour and magnitude Vesputius writes that in a Country above the promontory of good hope that hath its name from Parrots they are so high that they are a cubit and halfe long Scalig. exerc 236 saith he saw one so great that he almost fill'd up the space of the lattice of a Window Some are no bigger than a Thrush or Pigeon or Sparrow No man could hitherto paint sufficiently all its colours they are so many In burning Aethiopia and the farthest Indies they are all white in Brasil red in Calecut they are all Leek green Watchet or Purple coloured Scalig. Exerc. 59. s. 2. The Antients esteemed the Green best The head and beck of it are extreme hard wherefore when they teach him to speak it feels not unlesse you strike iâ— with a wand of Iron woodden rods will do no good and it is dangerous to do it with Iron ones The Parrot alone with the Crocodile moves his upper mandible also his Beck which is common to no other where it is joyned to his neck is open beneath under his chops His tongue is broad like to a mans and represents the forme of a gourd seed the feet are like Woodpickers feet In the desertâ— of Presbyter John they are found with two Claws He puts his meat in his mouth like as men do He not only cuts in sunder the Almonds but by rowling them in the hollow of his Beck and
very learned Authors have written making mention of it also in their other works as Hieron Card. de varietat rer c. 36. Du Bartas in his Weeks the 6 th day and 1 day of his 2 week But they all do not agree of the places and manner of its generation Munster saith the Orcades are full of these birds Gyraldus speaks of Ireland Dubartus of Scotland which he calls Luturnen as also Mela writes Hector Boetius relates the same things of the Hebrides A French man understands it concerning any part of the Hesperian Sea He saith a certaine bird iâ— bred without Cock or Hen but only from some vegetable namely in Scotland from the Trees of that Country Also ships made of the same Trees when they are in the middle of the Sea produce the same fowls The French call them Marquerolle it is good to eat Plutarch makes mention of the same bird in a Treatise that begins Whether an Egge were first or a Hen The Scotch call them Klekgues Others write of them thus In the Orcades Island and Scotland there is a Tree by the Sea side and on the banks of Rivers that beares fruit not unlike to Ducks and when it is ripe it falls down into the water and swims away alive and becomes a bird if it fall on the the ground it corrupts Others call them Barnacles As also in the â—ittle Theatre of the World they are ascribed to Ireland and are thus deciphered There are also here Birds called Barnacles growing by nature contrary to Natures order not unlike to Ducks but only they are lesse For from wood of Masts for Ships first comes forth some kind of Gum then with weed or Sea grass calld'd Wier some shell-fish sticks to those kinds of wood together with the pitch which in time get wings and become Birds and fly or fall into the waters and swim I have often seen saith Silvester abundance of these Tree-Ducks hanging on the Wood inclosed in shells till they could fly They lay no eggs as other Birds do nor are they bred of eggs In some places they eate these Birds for Fish and not for Flesh. Hector Boetius tells the same History of a Bird he calls Claâ—is For saith he if you cast Wood into the Sea about the Hebrides in time Worms will breed in it that eate that Woodhollow and afterwards become Birds and are like to Geese flying Hee ascribes the generation of them to the Sea called by Homer and Virgil the Father of all things But these different descriptions of Authors do neither agree amongst themselves nor in all things with the truth it selfe For the place some say it is the Orchades others Ireland others the Hebrides others Scotland and all this may be true since in the Ocean between Scotland and the Orcades and Ireland and the Hebrides they are said to breed in both places For it is no small extent of place where they are but all that compasse of the Sea in the outmost bounds of Scotland and Ireland For the name there is no difference for divers Nations use divers names But whether that faculty be to be ascribed to the Woods or Trees of those Countries or to Worms that breed from those Trees and are changed into Shell-Fish is worth Enquiry since the forementioned Authours were of so various opinions But we shall consent with none of them For were this vertue in the Wood why should not the same kind of Wood used for Masts have the same faculty in all places yet that is not so nor do Ships made of that Wooâ— produce such fowle in the middle of the Sea For who ever heard any such thing done in France Germany or England yet are all their Havens frequented by Scotch Merchants and Ships from the Orcades Noâ— can this be referred to the Trees for they beare not birds but fruit of their own kind If they be cut down and turn'd to other uses and cast into the Sea to corrupt and grow rotten that is that they may dye as it were as to their first being and be turned into the common matter of Wood then begins this new generation of living Creatures by the influence of the Heavens and the Suns heat coâ—operating For how should a vegetable produce a flying Creature like a Goose Is not every Tree known by its specifical fruit whether it be good or bad Againe doth not every kind of fruit testify what Tree it was bred on â— Trees do not beare fish nor the Sea Trees Hares use to be found in Woods and merry conceits in words and not the contrary A vegetable doth not couple with an animal nor an animal with a vegetable each keeps its own rank and doth not exceed it unlesse Nature using the help of putrefaction do produce some small living Creatures in vegetables as I said before They that think that Worms may become fowls do not in my Judgment speak what is probable For how should a shell-fish come of a Worm yet understand me so that what I deny of each by themselves I would grant of all together But because I know this not by heare-say but I have seen above 50 almost hundreds of these shell-fish and when they were opened I have seen little young Birds coming forth as out of aâ—â— egge with all their parts necessary for flight and I have had them in my hands I must not omit here to set down an exact description of them and this it is If perhaps some pieces of Masts of Ships smeer'd with pitch fall into those Seas in the outmost parts of Scotland nor far from the Orcades or Hebrides and lye there a long time they not only grow rotten and full of Worms but are covered all over with Sea weeds for of such grass there is abundance there which cleaves to any Wood easily especially if it send forth a pitchy fatnesse as Masts that are fiâ—re or pitch Trees and are full of pitchy Rosin and then for Ships occasions are again besmeerd with the same namely that the sayls may suddenly be noised up and pulled down and stay no where Now the Sea breeds those weeds at the bottom neere the shore that are longer or shorter and these at certain times swim on the top of the water being moved or pull'd up as it were by the waves This bred in the water doth not easily corrupt having much of a salt nature in it wherefore in North Holland and many other places they make of those weeds a strong fence against the violence of the Sea so that they fetch a remedy from the disease wherefore these weeds hanging round about the said pieces of Masts insinuate themselves into the rotten places and in time on the other side of each grass will grow small shell-fish which are whitish or of the colour of a Mans nayls and in forme hollownesse and long fashion like to the nayle of a mans little finger whereof if two be joyned together that they may stick well the
inward parts of the brain by a locall motion yet without any changing of the place only by calling to remembrance things at the greatest distance which were seen long before or were done or thought of So in the Sun the Heavens the fixed Starrs there is a kind of imaginative vertue not passive as in animals but purely active which by locall motion comes thence into sublutary bodies and is communicated to certaine subjects as to seeds of individualls And this is the form that first begins and increaseth all generation communicating the essence to every thing that it shall be such a thing and not another This force is the first moveable frameing its subject as an Architect and one that frames her self a house where to dwell that she governs to that end that Nature the artificer assigns it That is the spermatick faculty that resides in the body of the seed without which this is barren and vain nor doth promote any generation If this by time vanish or by breaking the Container of it there follows no fructification as appeares in Corn which if it grow old or be ground to meale it can propagate no more Or why doth this power reside in that body rather than in another and perisheth presently afterwards I answer there is no other reason to be given than that Nature rejoyceth in such means and hath included that vertue that it cannot flye away if it be obedient unto nature vvhich if she would she could have put into other subjects It is admirable that the animal spirits in men are contained in the nerves 〈…〉 do they flye out of them into the Ayre and when those nerves are pressed their passage is stopped whence astonishment or a palsey for a time sâ—aseth on the foot or arme which is by and by removed by the Spirits succeeding into the nerves After the same manner that imaginative vertue of the heavenly bodies especially of the Sun if it passe into the individual subjects or seeds of things it naturally remaines in them at the will and pleasure of nature But where there are no seeds there the same vertue of the Heavens is communicated to some certaine matter immediately as in this generation to this fat and clammy subject of which we spake before as to the material cause For there are two things in all seeds the Elementary matter and the celestiall forme the latter whereof may perish the matter and externall forme remaining entire but nothing of that was generated out of the matter when the celestial forme is lost Matter in this generation is in time before the forme and receives it by influence though it be not deprived of any forme it had I speak of the first matter but the subsequent forme if it do not take away the first forme yet it perfects it But it is a question Wherefore this formal force as for example in making a bird is not sent into every matter or into any whatsomever when as it is received without certaine vessells or bodies of seeds I answer that matter so prepared in such wood and not in another and in such a place and not in another supplies the place of a seminal body whose qualities not being in another therefore noe other subject is capable of that formal and determinate vertue There are examples every where of this Imagination or celestiall Influence namely in some places of the County of Mansfield where Mines of Brasse in a stone that may be cut do shew forth all kinds of Fishes and the forms of such as are in the next Lake as we may see Teeth Horns and Lyons to perfection formed by nature under ground in hollow Caves and other places In Amber also which by the Sea Waves is cast on the shores of the Island now call'd Sudovia in Borussa divers forms of flyes gnats spiders butterflies frogs lizards and other Creatures appear not really but only from the imaginative faculty of the Heavens imprinted in it For if you should cut the Amber or break it to find them the places would be empty which nature hath so sported her selfe upon yet are all their parts and particles so shadowed to the life that a man would sweare that such Creatures are really included in that matter perchance wrapt in when the gum was moyst But it is no such matter for there is no earthly matter and which is not transparent that is contain'd in those concave figures which yet ought to be otherwise since a corporal substance cannot vanish away and only the forme of it remaine Moreover if any such living Creatures had fallen into the gummy substance of it as into Rosin or Turpentine their wings or feet that are besmeer'd would be seen so and not extended entire and direct which is not so here but all seem entire as through a Crystall glasse Farther if that should fall from Trees into the water those Trees would be known Pliny l. 37. c. 2. 3 writes of Amber thus Pitheus saith he discovered to the Guttones borderers on Germany an arme of the Sea called Mentonomon for the space of 6000 furlongs from this the Island Abulus is a days sailing from thence Amber is carried by the Waves of the Sea and it is the purging of the Sea congealed The inhabitants use it for wood to burn and sell it to the Germanes their neighbours Timoeus beleived this but he called the Island Baltia Mithridates saith there is an Island in the shores of Germany and it is called Osericta that is full of a kind of Cedar Trees from thence it runs to the Rocks But certaine it is that it breeds in some Islands of the North Sea and the Germans call it Glessum and therefore our Country men call one of those Islands Glessaria When Germanicus Caesar was there with his Navy the Barbarians called it Austravia It is brought by the Germans especially into the Country of Pannonia Thence the Venetians first whom the Geeeks call Heneti spread the fame of it they receiving that from Pannonia about the Adriatick Sea That shore of Germany is about 600 miles from Carnuntum of Panonia from whence it is brought being but lately discovered A Roman Knight sent by Julian to trafique for this who took care of the fencing sports of Nero Caesar passed over all those shores where these Merchandises were and saw such abundance brought in that the nets that were set to keep off wild beasts from the Galleries were full of knots of Amber but the weapons and biers and the whole provision for one day was made of Amber He brought a great weight or clot of it that weighed 13 pounds Pliny In Amber as it is transparent that incorporeal figure doth easily appeare but not so in other dark bodies Nor yet in the matter of the wood we speak of In which not only the figure of a bird but also a spermatick natural force to forme it nourish and augment it and to preserve it in its vital functions is implanted as
a Swan There was one brought to Middleburg in Zeland Anno. 1558. It was called an Indian Sheep Scalig. in exerc calls it Allo. Camelus CHAP. VII Of the Shee-Goat THe report is that Goats see as well by night as by day wherefore if those that are blind in the night eat a Goats Liver they will be cured They breathe out of their eares and nostrils if we will credit the Shepherds Phiâ—es gives the reason because when their nostrills are stopt they are not hurt Aelian When the Sun sets they lye backwards in the fields and so they do at other times but one with another A Goats horn laid under a sick mans head will bring him to rest scraped with honey it stops the belly flux burnt it will raise people in a Lethargy In Aegypt they are said to bring 5 young ones The cause is the water of Nilus that is drank by such as are Barren and want milk They shew the revolution of Syrius For as often as he riseth with the Sun they turn to the East and gaze upon it Plutarch In some part of Africa they sheer them and make Cabels of their haire Those of Lybia shew when rayn comes for so soon as they come forth of their stalls they run to feed and presently come back to their stalls again Aelâ—an Those of Gimanâ—a do not drink in six moneths but turning toward the Sea they receive the vapours with open mouth and so they quench their thirst The Goat of Mambrey will endure a saddle and bridle and a rider he hath ears that hang down to the ground and horns twisted below his mouth Gesner l. 1. de quadrup The wild ones in Lâ—bia are as great as Oxen so active that they will leap upon the highest Mountain tops and their limbs are so hard that if they fall they neither break their horns nor hurt their heads Aelian l. 14. c. 16. CHAP. VIII Of the Beaver and Colus THe Beaver is a most strong Creature to bite he will never let go his teeth that meet before he makes the bones crack Plin. His hinder feet are like a Gooses and his fore-feet like an Apes His fat tail is covered with a scaly skin and he useth it for a rudder when he pursues fish He comes forth of his holes in the night and biting off boughs of Trees about the Rivers he makes his houses with an upper loft and when the water riseth he lies there Albert. When they are cut asunder they are very delightsome to see for one lies on his back and hath the boughs between his leggs he holds them fast that they may not fall down and the others draw him by the tail to their Cottage Colus is a four-footed wild Beast amongst the Scythians and Sarmatians he is for greatnesse between a Stag and a Ram. He is white and very swift He drawes his drink by his nostrils into his head and holds it for some dayes so that he will feed well enough in Pastures where there is no water Strabo l. 7. Sometimes they will be 500 together but about Easter you may see 2000. In March they dig up an herb by the sent whereof they stirre up venery when that is spent for a day they lie as half dead but when they taste of it once more they are restored Gesn. CHAP. IX Of the Cat and Câ—ney THe Cats eyes are so good that she will see any thing in the dark Albert. The Cat by the Egyptian Sea is observed to change the pupils of his eye as the Sun doth alter They are long in the morning round at noon when the Sun sets they are obscured Gellius He commonly playes on his back that he may look round about Cut off his ears he will stay at home more for he cannot endure the drops that fall into his ears If a Cat 's hair fall into a mans mouth it will stick there Hence matter is heaped together that causes a Scrâ—fulous diseases Scaliger saith That in the Province of Malabar there are wild-Cats dwelling in Trees they leap as though they flew having no wings They have a membrane stretched out from their fore-feet to their hinder-feet when they rest they contract it up to their belly when they begin to fly by moving their feet and thighes they are carried and born up by stretching out and gathering in this membrane and it is wonderfull to see them run as if they ran in the Ayr. Conies are abundant in the Baleares where they do the Corn and the fields great harm Solin They breed every moneth nor are their young ones blind They presently take Buck again so soon as they have bred though the young ones do suck Plin. l. 10. The female hath not milk presently so soon as she hath brought forth before she hath been six hours with the Buck and they have eaten some Oats Gesner de quadrup CHAP. X. Of the Stag. IT is certain that there are white Stags and Does that have horns Apollonius saw them as he passed beyond Paraca a City of the Indies Philostrat l. 3. Sertorius led one about which he feigned to have received from Diana that he took counsel with that so he might keep his Souldiers in obedience Gellius Lewis King of France took one and when Anna of Britanny asked what that was he said That they were all such at first and that God took them from them for their pride Their blood hath no fibres as other creatures have and therefore it will never grow thick The Gall is not upon the Liver but upon the Intestines or in the Tail Hence it is so bitter that dogs will not eat it Plin. In their heads they have live Worms sometimes 20 and they are parted so great as Maggots in flesh They are said to breed under the hollow of their tongue near the Vertebra where the head joyns to the neck If you pierce the scull bone in such as are of years under the eye you shall see Wasps fly out bred of the superfluous humour if you will credit Hunters and then he can live no longer unlesse he eat a Serpent to renew himself Gesner writes That in the basis of the heart between the lap of the greater ventricle and the urinal vein there is a bone found He addes That it is reddish from the heart blood and melancholick some adde that from a dry vapour it is turned into a bony substance Some adde further that it is found at no other time than between the two Feasts of the blessed Virgin that is from the middle of August to the Iâ—es of September The Doe breeds near the pathwayes for she thinks that she is safe from wild beasts by reason of men passing up and down So soon as she is delivered she first eaâ—e the gleaning hence it is that the herb Seseli is her medicament in bringing forth Arist. in hist. animal They swim over the Sea like Ships the Master Buck leads the rest follow They lean their heads one
hogs very cunningly One told me saith Albertus that a Woulf was seen to take a great piece of wood in his mouth of 30 or 40 pound weight in a Forrest and did use with that to run over a great stock of a Tree then when he thought he was skilfull enough in that exercise he hid himself and a wild hog coming thither by reason of Oates that were sowed there and many hogs young and old with him he brake forth and catched the hog that was about the bignesse of the block he lept behind the stock of the Tree and there devoured him They will not eat Oxen if you hang his tail at the Cratch Albert. Horses will tire under the rider if they follow on the Wolves footing if they tread on his heel they will stand still Gillius The skins of sheep slayn by Wolves will breed lice but their flesh is the sweeter Aristot. Plutarch ascribes this to his breath His words are The flesh of a sheep that is bitten by a Wolf is made the sweeter because the biting of the Wolf makes it soft and tender for the breath of the Wolf is so fiery that he will melt and consume the hardest bone in his stomack Examples shew that when he is shut in he will do no harm For in Italy one going into a Country-mans house the Country man ran away but the Wolf did his Children no hurt and falling into the same Cave with a Fox and a Woman he hurt neither Gesner CHAP. XXV Of the Lizzard VOlatteranus writes That there was a Lizzard 8. cubits long brought to Rome from Aethiopia by the command of a Cardinal of Lisbone and the mouth of it was so wide that a Child might be put into it Lerius c. 10. hist. saw one in Brasil 7. foot long as thick as a mans arm If you strike it on the soal and cut it in two pieces with a twig neither part will dye but it parts and first goes then joyns together Aelian The green ones are friends to man that they will gaze upon him obliquely and follow him when he goes they will lick up his spittle and Childrens urine Erasmus in colloq de amicitia Putt alive into a new earthen vessell and boyl'd with 3. Sextaryes of wine to one Cyathus it is excellent good for one sick of the Pâ—hisick if he drink of it in the morning fasting Marcell Seven of them suffocated in half a measure of oyl and set in the Sun for 3. dayes will so alter it that by anointing therewith it will cure the Rose Gesn. A water Lizzard if he be angry and as it were puffed up will stand upright on his feet and look terribly with open mouth on him that hurt him and will by degrees send forth a venomous white swear till he become all white Agricola When he is old and cannot see he lies by a hole in the wall against the East and looking toward the Sun rising he regains his sight Isidor To conclude 't is a wonder that Aelian speaks in his history There was saith he a man that catcht a great Lizzard and with a brazen point he put out the eyes thereof then he put it into an Earthen pot full of holes that it might have breath yet not come forth he put in also deâ—y earth and an herb whose name he mentions not then with an Iron ring wherein the stone Sogates was set in which was cut the picture of a Lizzard he made 9 seals and every day he blotted out one Lastly when he took off the 9 th seal and opened the pâ—t I saw the Lizzard and his sight was restored CHAP. XXVI Of the Lynx and Lutra or Otter THe Lynx is said to see so clearly that he will pierce through solid bodies yet too great light offends him Some say they onely suck the blood of their prey and never meddle with the flesh Erasmus saith he assaults greater four-footed beasts leaping upon them from Trees and catching them by the crown with his â—aloâ—s he will tear their heads and eat their brains not touching the other parts but he will eat lesser creatures every bit In Summer they are weak in Autumn strong They hide their pisse in heaps of sand as Theophrastus saith and it growes as hard as a pretious stone It is like Amber in colour and drawes things to it it cures pains of the Kidneys and the Kings-Evill We saw one at Lyons in the repositary of Cl. Dominus Baudartius Men say that in Carpathus they burn their claws and their skins for to be drunk effectually by men in powder against all obscenenesse and against too great lust in women Plin. The flesh eaten with the broth cures quartan Agues and the bones burnt cure Ulcers Collinus In the Tower of London there was once a living Creature that Gesner refers to a Lynx It was alwaies moving and would never stand still as John Gaius an Englishman writes but it would stand still at the voice of a Hickeway Lutra hath a Dogs head the Beavers ears a Foxes legs but these are somewhat thicker they are more prevalent in Water than on Land The hinder parts are plain with a membrane to fence them His Cottage is near the waters it is made of boughes that it cannot be weâ— Sometimes it is so full of Fish that they stink It is so quick-sented that he will smell fish by water that comes forth of a â—ivuleâ— at some miles distance and will go to the Fish-ponds and destroy them In Scandinavia he is so tame that he will bring fish out of the water to the Cooks in the Kitchins but because he is greedy of his prey and kills too many he is seldom used CHAP. XXVII Of the Mouse AMongst the Allobroges the Mice are white and the Inhabitants think they live by Snow Scaliger In the Island of Cyprus they will gnaw Iron and in another Island Gold therefore they are cut in pieces for mettal Aristot. in mirab Their generation is wonderfull If they do but lick salt some think they will conceive without copulation Aristot. A shee Mouse great with young staying some time in a vessel of Millet seed when the vessel came to be opened there were found 120 Mice Plin. In a part of Persia she-Mice were opened that had she-mice with young ones in their bellies They first perceive when a House will fall Helice is an Example of it for five dayes before it happened the Mice and Serpents were seen to go away in Troops Aelian â—n variis When they fall into a vessell of water and can hardly come forth they lay hold one by the tail of another and so clamber forth Elephants cannot endure the smell of them for they will not feed on any thing that Mice have touched They will â—lye away if one be gelded or let run away with the skin of his head pull'd off Avicenna when they cry they foreshew tempests they cry either because they perceive the Ayre cold or because
their skin is fine and they cannot endure to tread on the cold earth and therefore they leap up Aratus Some think they will not be taught yet Albertus saith in upper Germany he saw a Mouse hold a Candle at supper time to give light to those that sate at Table when his Mr. commanded him If a Mouse fall into new Wine and be drown'd put him into hot ashes and he will recover Colâ—mel 12.31 There are many kinds of Mice A rat is four times as big as a Mouse Agricola saw one taken in the mid'st of Aprill that was white with red eyes sticking out and it was all hairy and had a beard with very long haires Men say that there are none to be found at Auspurg about the Temple of St. Huldericus when they are lustfull they are furious so that iâ— they pisse on any naked part of a Man it will rot to the bones nor will the Ulcer be cured Albert Aquatic They will hunt fish and diving under water they will find some holes to come to land another way The field-Mice that breed of putrefaction have one right gut and no more A Physitian that dissected one observed that Gesner When Nilus runs back again little Mice are found imperfect part of their body being alive from the mixture of earth and water and part dead earth In some places they come so suddedly in abundance that they will eate up all the Corn Pliny The Wood-Mice steep from the ending of Autumne till the Spring begins Gesnerus In Norway it is called Citellus it dwells in the Caves of the earth There are found somtimes 40 in one hole with abundance of small nuts They eate them fresh or dried in the Chimney Agricola The Cricotus or Hamester is referred to Mice his haire sticks so fast to his skin that the skin will sooner come from the flesh than the hairs from the skin He will not easily be drawn out of his hole but by scalding water The male is false for when there is meat enough within he shuts out the female But she revengeth his falsenesse with fraud for possessing her self of some hole not far from him she will gather Corn he knows not of and live upon that Agricola Mice in the Alps are as big as Hares or else betwixt a Coâ—ey and a Hare It will foreshew a tempest with a very shrill voyce like a pipe and that not only in the Mountains but when he is kept in the House He hath three holes in his cave at one he enters and comes out again in another he rests and dwells in the third he â—ays his excrements When Mountains are covered with snow he hides himself in his Cave and shuts the holes he stops in the earth so fast and rams it in that it is easier to dig up the earth on either side than where it is rammed into the holes CHAP XXVIII Of the Wesil and the Sable Wesil WEesils carried into Baeotia will run away in a certaine Island they will not be taken out for if they be they dye Albertus There was a man that affirmed he saw a Weesil passing over the River Limagus constantly leaping so that he never swam but leaped upon the surface of it It is an Aegyptian Hieroglyphick for they say it ingenders by the eare and is delivered by the mouth this emblem shews the nature of speech His genitalls are bony and is a speciall remedy against the stone Yet that must not saith Albertus be understood as if it were so indeed but only by proportion that it hath The Germans call the best sort of them Zobella This skin is of very great price for sometimes 2000 Crowns at Constantinople will hardly buy a coat of them Jovius But the nature of them is such that laid in the Sun to dry they will consume more than if they be worn a whole yeare This creature whilst it lives alwaies lurks in a shady grove and watcheth for Coneys They are nimble and use their taile for a helme as squirrils do and will leap from Tree to Tree CHAP. XXIX Of the Sheep SHeep are creatures known to all The Arabian Sheep have a very broad taile and the fatter it is the thicker it will be Some tails weigh ten pounds some 20 and it naturally grows faâ— Johannes Africanus saw one above 80 pound weight some have seen them above 150 pound weight In Africa Rams are bred with Horns presently and also Sheep as there are some with Horns in England Albertus saw a Ram that had 4 great Horns growing on his head and two long ones on his legs that were like to Goats Horns yet in Pontus in the Province of Scythia they have no Horns Aristot. And they have no gall But in the Island Naxus they have two and men say the Pontic Wormwood is the cause of it Plin. In cold Countries when the snow abounds they lose it but recover it again in the Spring Aelian Anno 1547 one was given to the French King that was very fat in Picardy one of the claws namely the inward claw of both feet was eight inches long the extream part of it turned upwards and it had a Horn like to wild Goats Gesner In the Country of Prasy they yeeld most sweet milk for it rayns liquid honey that they feed on Aelian The milk is very fat in the Isle Erythea for it hath no whey and to make cheese they temper it with abundance of Fountain water The cause is the plenty of pasture It grows so fat and full that in 30 days the Sheep will be choked if it be not let blood Pliny About Calimos a Village of India they smell like fish for wanting grasse they eate fish and they that feed on fish give them dry fish to eate Arrian When the North wind blows males are chiefly conceived when the Southwind females For such is the force of the North wind that it will change those that yean none but females and cause them to bring males Plin. When a noise is made they flock together and if when it thundereth one that is with lamb be left alone she will miscarry Arist. In the Orcades Islands they all almost yean twins and oft times 3 lambs Boetius Though their bodies be very soft yet they are free of the plague Columella One was seen to run mad which a mad Cow had hit with her Horn. In England they rot in their bowells if in rainy Summers they feed on moyst ground and lick the dew Gesner In France if they eate the herb Duva they breed black Creatures in their Livers and this disease is incurable The French in Normandy call that hearb Duva that is like to the sharp dock but the leaves are narrovver and stand alvvaies upright and the middle nerve is almost red and serves for Causticks Gesner Meadovv vvater drank breeds Horseleeches shut up in bladders in the same place they are a finger and half long and almost halfe as broad CHAP. XXX Of the
no where more totally in any Creature than in the smallest Creatures And In the contemplation of it nothing can seem superfluous CHAP. I. Of Living Creatures without blood in generall TRuly the nature of bloodlesse Creatures seems to be contemptible and not to be compared in the least with the shoulders of Elephants that carry Castles or the necks of Bulls and their fierce casting up of things into the Ayr nor to the Manes of Lions yet is there no where a more remarkable piece of Nature's Workmanship and Nature is no where total more than in the least Creatures For in great bodies there was a sit place to work in the matter being ductile but in these that are so small and almost as nothing what reason what force what unspeakable perfection is there Where hath Nature placed so many senses in the Gnat Where hath she set her eyes where her smelling Where hath she made that horrid and great Voyce considering its proportion of body how hath she cunningly fastned the wings lengthned the legs hath disposed a hollow place instead of a belly and made it thirsty after blood especially mans blood but by what art hath she wheâ—â—ed the snowt of it to make it penetrate into the skin And since the smallnesse of it cannot be discerned in comparison with that is very great nature hath helped it by a twofold art that it might be sharp to peirce and hollow to drink with all Plin. l. 11. c. 2. Aristotle reckons 4 kinds of bloodlesse creatures The soft the hard crusty the shell-wearing and the insect The soft kinds want scales and their skin is not rough nor with a shell but soft as it is in Men. They have no bones no bowels If there be any they are like to fishes prickles except only the Polypus Plin. l. 9. c. 28. Their heads are between their legs and their bellies they have no tongues nature only hath given them somthing that is fleshy to discern the pleasure of that they eate But they have a Brain and they have that is proportionable to that part which is designed by nature for the principality of feeling Also they are of both sexes The parts of the males are all more rough and distinguished with various lines running between the tayl is sharper the passage under the throat comes from the brain to the bottom of the pipe and the place it is carried to is like to the teats It is double that is set above in the females and reddish little bodies are joyned to it in both sexes They refuse salt water they can hardly endure cold for they are naked and fearfull because they want blood Their eggs when they are lay'd increase as Worms do but they must needs have their vital force from the seed of the male as fishes have Aristot. de generat l. 3. c. 8. Of those that are crusty there are two kinds for they are all either with tails or round Their taile is evident and stretched forth the cover of this as it were covers the end of their belly and is so joyned to the lower part of their belly that it shews not at all like a taile Scalig. exercit 245. Their parts are as the other parts of bloodlesse creatures Their teeth in their mouths are long and round covered with a double covering Aristot. de part 4 c. 3. between which such things are placed as are knit between the teeth of Locusts They want eylids but their eyes are placed above their mouth they are hard and apt to move inward and outward and obliquely They breathe not but casting water through a hollow pipe they are refreshed The males have small passages for their genital parts the females have membranous matrices cut as farr as their intestins and in them an egge is bred They copulate after the manner of those creatures that pisse backwards The female brings forth a red egge covered over with a thin shelly membrane they are otherwise called Conchylia purple shell fish that were of old held for great dainties that they grew into a proverb to be the widows delights Nature hath so sported in the variety of them in so many figures and colours that it is hard to number them Plin. l. 9. c. 33. to explain the variety of them saith thus They are of so many figures plain hollow long like the half Moon round cut in half circles rising in the back smooth rugged dented streaked the top wreathed like the Murex the borders pointed outward or folded inward somtimes distinguished with little lines hairy curled like doggs waved like a comb a tyle lattice wise or like net work stretched out obliquely or right forth close thickned together open as when men clap their hands bended backwards like to a Horn. Moreover in the red Sea they are of a wonderfull greatnesse also they are found on the tops of the highest Mountains and they somtimes lye hid in the inward parts of the earth or in stones Goropius Becanus in Aldrovandus saith he hath seen some in a flint that we use to pave the streets with brought from Bethum there were so many shell-fish all of stone and shut up entire in their coverings that you would judge that flint to have been framed with great care and art of them joyned with some cement In the fields about the suburbs of Paris that are fruitfull with Corn above there is underneath a Cave that is under great part of it where Chariots may passe I found there a great many shells like Sea perwinkles in a delicate order both twisted and adorned with little knots and so exact that there was nothing wanting to their perfection but the living fish I saw in England a stone cut out of the highest Mountains that was like a living perch not the least line was wanting to make it perfect Insects have incisions either above or beneath or else on both sides and though it be bony or fleshy yet they have somthing that is between both The differences of them are many if you note their place the quality of their body their quantity their food their generation their motion of their going As for the place we must speak somthing reddish hairy Worms are bred in Snow in the fire Worms called Pyrausta in the Sea water the insect call'd Micro-rinchotoros or little nose the Sea Scotopendra and the gnat In fresh water there ariseth Leeches Scrophulae Strumae Cherodes in the earth Worms and Juli in minerals not a few In the stumps of Trees Cossi and Teredines The Fig-Tree breeds the Worm Cerastes if an Olive Tree be planted where an Oke is digged up there breed Frogs and little Worms in the Service-Tree there are breed red hairy ones in the bladders of Elms Psennes in Vines those that Tully calls Butyri in the Spindle-Tree or as Theophrastus calls it Tetragonia there is yearly bred some Catterpillers that dye so soon as the leaves are wasted In the apple of a certain shrub call'd Coccios
nourished is very great at the place he comes forth of his shell This is very brittle milk white shining polished altogether representing the form of a round ship for it swims on the top of the Sea arising from the bottom and the shell comes the bottom upwards that it may ascend the better and sail with an empty Boat and when she is come above the water then she turns her shell Moreover there is a membrane that lyes between the fore-legs of the Boat-fish as there is between the toes of water-fowl but this is more thin like a cobweb but strong and by that she sails when the wind blowes the many tufts she hath on both sides she useth for rudders and when she is afraid then she presently sinks her shell full of Sea water Farther she hath a Parrots bill and she goes with her tufts as the Polypus doth and after the same manner she conceives in hollow partitions CHAP. XVIII Of Oysters and Muscles THough Oysters love sweet waters yet Pliny reports that they are found in stony places but Aristotle saith that though they live in water and cannot live without it yet they take in no moysture nor Ayre When in the time of the Warr with Mithridates the earth parted at Apumaea a City of Phrygia Rivers did suddenly appeare and not only sweet but salt waters brake out of the bowels of the earth though the Sea were farr distant so that they filled all that Coast with Oysters Athen. l. 8. The Oysters are of divers colours In Spain they are red in Sclavonie brown in the red Sea they are so distinguished with flaming Circles that by mixture of divers colours it is like the Rainbow Aelian l. 10. c. 13. At the beginning of Summer they are great and full of milk At Constantinople they cast this wheish matter into the water which cleaving to stones will beget Oysters Gillius writes it and it is very probable For of the decoction of Mushroms powred on the ground it is certain that Mushroms will grow the Crabfish doth wonderfully desire the meat of them but he comes hardly by them because they have a strong shell by nature wherefore he useth his cunning For when in places where the wind blows not he sees them taking pleasure in the Sun and to open their shells against the Suns beams he privately casts in a stone that they cannot shut again and so he conquers them CHAP. XIX Of the Butterflye and the Polypus THe Butterflies couple after August the male dying after copulation the female lays egs and dieth also How they are preserved in winter is hardly discovered by any man except by Aldrovandus de Insectis But he enquired of Country people and they hold him that the leaves were great with the Butterflies seed at what time they plowed the ground they were hid in the bowells of it and fostered by its heat yet he thinks that they only are preserved that lye hid in the hollow barks of Trees but what lyes on leaves is quickned the same yeare And Aldrovandus adds I saw eggs layd under the leaves of Chamaeficus out of which about the end of August little Catterpillars naturally came forth They were wrapped in a thin down that the ayre might not hurt them and these little Catterpillars falling did not fall to the ground but hung by a small thred like Spiders in the Ayre When they lay under leaves they fold them so that the rain cannot hurt them and lay them up as under a penthouse I twice observed one Catterpillar that I took amongst the Coleworts first to lay yellow eggs wrapt up also in fine down and when they were laid she turned into a Chrysalis of the same colours that she was that is yellow green and black and that which seemed strange to me out of those eggs little flying creatures came forth that I could hardly see them such as are wont to be found in the bladders of Elms when they are in great abundance they shew contagion of the Ayre Anno 1562 they flew at Bannais neere the waters in such multitudes that they darkned the course of the River especially after Sun set then coming hither about night they wandred through the Villages as in Battel aray little differing from Moths Cornelius Gemma testifieth that that was a tempestuous yeare The Polypus in time grows so great that it is taken for a kind of Whale In the bowells of them there is a strange thing like a Turbane that you would say it had the nature of the Heart or of the Liver but it suddenly dissolves and runs away They exceedingly love the Olive-Tree For if a bough on which Olives hang be let down into the Sea and held there you may catch abundance of them hanging about the bough Somtimes they are taken sticking to Figg-Trees growing by the Seaside and they eat the fruit of them They also delight wonderfully in Locusts of which you shall find a cleare Testimony in Petrus Berchorius I have heard saith he that some Fishermen in the Sea of Province had set Locusts on the shore to boyle over burning coles and a Polypus smelling the Locust came forth of the Sea and coming to the fire would with his foot have taken a Locust forth but he feared the heat of the fire and so went back to the Sea and filâ—'d a coat which he had on his head like a Friers cowle with water and went and came so often with it and cast it on the fire that he put the fire out and so taking the Locust he had carryed it to the Sea unlesse one of the Fishermen that saw him had caught him and broyl'd him to eat instead of the Locust CHAP. XX. Of a Lowse and a Flea SOme think that Lice are bred of flesh others of blood but both opinions are false For first they breed in the skin of the head and we know they abound in the second and third kind of hectick feavers when as there is little flesh and here they are almost consumed Again in putrid Feavers they breed not and things bred do confirm their principles Their colour shews they proceed not from blood Wherefore some think they breed from putrid matter that is cold and moyst which abounds in the skin in places where they cannot be blown away Experience teacheth that they will leave those that are dead either because the blood is cold in the body when the heat is gone or because the dead body is cold and they fly from the cold Nolanus Problem 225. They that eat figs often are thought to be troubled with them Nolanus makes the juice of them to be the cause For this increasing in the veins heats the blood and makes it moyst and frothy which because it naturally tends to the skin and retain'd under that it putrefies it turns to lice Truly they that feed on figs have little knots and warts on their skins A Flea is a small Creature yet Africanus a cunning
They love the Sea exceedingly For when their skins are tanned if there be any hair left they will turn as the Sea lies by a naturall instinct For if the Sea be troubled and tosse they will stand upright but if the Sea be quiet they lye flat down When Pliny would not credit this he made tryall of it in the Indian Sea and about the Island Hispaniola he found it to be no fable as Cardan saith Rondeletius saith That by their skin changes are foreshew'd for when the South winds blow their hair sticks up but when the wind is in the North they fall so flat that you would think they had none Aldrovandus saw one Calf taught by a Mountebank who would rejoyce at the name of any Christian Prince and would seem to mutter some words but he was silent when the Turk or an Heretick was named CHAP. XVI Of the Scales and the Indian Reversus like an Eele THe Scales do bring forth two or three young ones at one time but at many times they bring forth more Their eggs are first seen without a shell in the upper part of their matrix Some of them are as big as Hen egs some lesse some scarce so big as chiâ—h-peasen Aldrovandus counted above a hundred in one of them those that are next to be laid are put into the lower part of the matrix and are covered with a shell wherein there is contain'd both the white and the yelk When he much admired at this and sought for the cause of it he boyl'd hen-eggs in which appeared no white at all being but newly formed and he observed the white severed from the yelk by the heat of the fire Hence he found that at first they lye confused but are separated by degrees by heat and the shell that compasseth them is made of the grosser part grown hard Olaus in tabula Septentrionali pictures forth a Scale in the Sea defending a man from a kennel of Dog-fish in a place a little beyond the borders of Denmark The Indian Reversus like an Eel is a Fish of an unusuall figure like to a great Eel in body and it hath on the hinder part of the head a capacious skin like to a great purse The Inhabitants hold this fish bound at the side of the ship with a cord and onely let it down so far as the fish may stick by the keel of the ship for it cannot any wayes endure the ayr and when it sees any fish or Tortoise which are there greater than a great Target they let loose the fish he so soon as he is loose flies swifter than an arrow on the other fish or Tortoise and casting that skin purse upon them layes hold of his prey so fast that no force can unloose it unlesse they draw up the cord a little and pull him to the brink of the water For so soon as he sees the light of the ayr he forsakes his prey Martyr Rondeletius ascribes to him the understanding of an Elephant for he will be tame and know what is said to him CHAP. XVII Of the Remora and the Sea-Scarus THe Antients believed that the Remora would stay Ships and it hath been found true by examples of late Petrus Melaras of Bononia reports that the ship of Francis Cardinal of Troas when he went by Sea out of France was held fast in the swiftnesse of its course Many have sought for the cause but no man hath certainly found it Some things are alwayes immoveable to do their office as the Poles some things in respect of their place as the Center of the Earth which naturally never moves Contrarily some things are to move alwaies to do their office as the Heavens some things in regard of their place as Rivers So some things have a faculty of moving as the Loadstone some to stop motion as the Remora But since no reason can be given why cold is an enemy to heat so not for these things why such things that have efficient principles in them of motion do cause motion and those that have principles of resting should cause rest Keckermannus seems to ascribe this to a cold humour that the Remora sends forth that he freezeth the water about the rudder In Disput. Physica Aristotle l. 2. Hist. c. 17. saith That of all Fishes the Scarus onely chews the cud Ovid testifieth that when it is caught in a net it breaks not forth with the head foremost but turns his tail and breaks his way forth with that often striking the net They roast them in Candie thrusting a spit through their mouth and there the Fishermen eat greedily their maws stuft with more delicate meat They mash their Livers that are very great and without any gall and their excrements also together adding to them salt and vinegar Bellonius CHAP. XVIII Of the Sea-Serpent and the Sturgeon IT is most certain that there are Serpents in the Sea and Histories shew that they are of divers magnitudes Aristotle reports that in Africa they will overthrow their Galleys and kill Men. Olaus Magnus writes that about Norwey when the Sea is calm Serpents will shew themselves that are 100 or 200 foot long and sometimes they will catch men from the Ships Schiltbergerus a Hollander hath described the Combat between the Sea and Land-Serpents His words are In the Kingdom of Genyck there is a City call'd Sampson at what time I resided with Ureiasita King of the Turks Water-Snakes and Land-Serpents innumerable did surround that City for a mile on all sides These came forth of the Woods that are many in the Countries adjoyning and those forth of the Sea Whilest these met for 9. dayes no man for fear durst stirre forth yet they hurt neither man nor any other living Creature On the tenth day these two kinds of Serpents began to fight early in the morning and continued till Sun-set and the Water-Serpents yielded to the Land-Serpents and the next day 8000 of them were found dead Many suppose that the Sturgion will pine away in the Albis Gesner writes that Johannes Fredericus Elector of Saxony bought a Sturgion that weighed above 260 pound weight for so many Franks He is so strong with his tail that he will cut wood in sunder strike down a strong man and strike fire out of hard stones and the same is done by the rubbing of those little bones that are prickly all his body over CHAP. XIX Of the Salmon and the Turdus A Salmon about Colen is two cubits long and they are greater amongst the Miseni and at Dessavia neere the River Albis from 24 to 36 pounds weight In Helvetia neere Tigurus they are taken somtimes above 36 pound weight Albertus saith the intestine of it is divided into many parts like to fingers Gesner writes that he observed two passages from the very throat of one that he dissected they stretched downward one to the Maw by the Wezand and the other was namelesse In the River Mulda neere to Dessavia if the
fountain of good vapours is compared to beneficiall Jupiter the bladder of the Gall contains the fiery fury of Mars and the loose spungy flesh of the Milt which is the receptacle of melancholique humours doth perfectly represent the cold Planet of Saturn And if you please to proceed farther I can say boldly that the Elements Seas Winds are here shadowed forth The spirits of Mans body do set forth Heaven the quintessence of all things The four humours expresse the four Elements Hot dry choler represents the Fire blood-hot and moyst the Ayr flegme cold and moyst the Water melancholy cold and dry the Earth So the belly of Man is the Earth fruitful of all fruits The hollow vein is the Mediterranean Sea the Bladder the Western Sea into which all the Rivers discharge themselves and the superfluous salt which is resolved is collected He hath the East in his Mouth the West in his Fundament the South in his Navel the North in his Back Europe Asia Africa and America may summarily be described in Man Wherefore Abdalas the Barbarian said well that the body of Man is an admirable thing and Protagoras call'd Man The measure of all things Theophrastus The pattern of the Universe and Epitome of the World Synesius The horizon of corporeall and incorporeall things And lastly we may truly cry out with Zoroastres O Man the Workmanship of most powerfull Nature for it is the most artificiall Master-piece of Gods hands CHAP. II. Of Nutrition Article 1. Of the harmlesse feeding on venomous things IF we regard Histories we can hardly doubt but that venomous things may by custome become nutrimental For many learned men having written thus they ought to be of credit Avicenna Rufus and Gentilis speak of a young Maid who was fed with poysonous creatures from her tender age and her breath was venom to those that stood by her Albertus writes That at Colonia Agrippina there was a man that held Spiders for his daintiest meat One Porus a King of the Indies used poyson every day that he might kill other men There was one who killed venomous creatures that bit him Avicenna l. 8. de anim c. 2. It is a known History of a young Maid fed with poyson with which the Persian Kings kill'd other men In Hellespont the Ophyogenes feed on Serpents One that was delighted with the same food when he was cast into a vessell fill'd with Serpents received no harm Pliny and Athenagoras of Greece could never be hurt by Scorpions and the Aethiopians that are Inhabitants by the River Hyaspis made brave cheer of Serpents and Vipers Galen saith That an old Woman of Athens eat a great quantity of Hemlock which did her no hurt Hypoth the Empirick writes that another took 30 drams of it and received no harm and he saith further That one Lysis eat 4 drams of Opium The Thracian Dame made gallant victualls of handfulls of Hellebor Lastly King Mithridates could not poyson'd bee He drinking poyson oft grew poyson-free If you search the cause of it you shall find divers First is every mans natural property by reason of which Stares feed on Hemlock Sows on Henbane with delight Then there is a certain proportion of poyson for this changeth the power of the poyson and the disposition of the subject Again the strength or weaknesse of the body Conciliator saith he saw four men feeding on venomous meats one dyed suddenly two were dangerously sick and the fourth escaped To this adde the force of the composition and the quantity the variety of the time and place wherein they are collected So Trassius Mantinensis gathered his Hemlock in the coldest places that he might sooner kill men Theophrastus shews l. 9. hist. Plant. that at Chios there was a certain way to compound it to make it effectuall One stung by a Scorpion may live many dayes and one stung by Ammodites may live 7 dayes Chersydrus kills in 3. days a Viper in 3. hours a Basilisk suddenly Lastly the history of a woman that sought to poyson her husband proves that poyson growes more effectuall by being mingled with poysons of the same kind and lesse by being mingled with poysons of a contrary kind Also it is certain that hot poysons cannot be conquer'd for Sublimate by its extream corroding cannot be concocted by nature and Napellus kills by its extremity of heat Article 2. Of the eating of other unusuall Meats NAncelius l. 3. Analog writes of a Maid delighted to feed on dung and he relates that a certain Noble-man did greedily sup up the liquid dung of Maids Fernelius l. 6. Pathol. c. 3. tells of a Maid that eat quicklime as great as a mans Fist. Trincavellus tells of one l. 7. c. 5. that eat threds out of Garments Lusitanus c. 3. cur 86 of one that eat Bombasse and Wooll Marcellus Histor. mirab l. 4. c. 1. of one that eat Lizards A woman that was fifty years old eat Tartar Nicolaus serm 5. tract 4. c. 36. Camerarius speaks of another eat hair This may happen in a particular disease which in women with Child is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Virgins and others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the cause is a vicious naughty humour impacted in the coats of the stomack or bred in the same by ill diet or coming thither from the matrix Hence for the three first months especially it happens to women great with Child when they vomit and the Child consumes not much It troubles maids when their courses are stopt But it is hard to say how such an appetite should proceed from this cause and it is better to ascribe it to a hidden quality than to commit an absurdity in what is manifest But what is reported of one Lazarus that he would eat glasse stones Wood Living creatures and Live-fish and we were told by the famous Winsemius in praelection anatomic that a Country man in Frisland would do the same for money that seems to proceed from the fault of the nerves For in him when he was dissected the fourth conjugation of nervs that is produced in other men for the benefit of their tast neither came to his tongue nor palate but was turned back to the hinder part of his head as Columbus observed Anatom l. 15. Some also think a man may be nourished by smells and some Histories say it hath been done Rondeletius de piscib saith that one at Rome lived 40 yeares only by the Ayre and Laertius reports that Democritus the Abderite a Philosopher lived four days by smelling of bread steeped in Wine that he might not profane the feasts of Ceres Cardanus l. 8. de varietate rerum c. 41 saith that men may live longer only by contemplation Lastly Megasthenes writes that at the farthermost part of the Indies from the East about the River Ganges there is a Nation call'd Astomores people that have no mouth their body is all hairy and they are clothed with the mosse of boughs they live only by the