Salt but this is a deceitful sign The 4th Cause 4. The fourth Cause of the unequal saltness is the frequency or scarcity of Rains unto which we may add Snow and in the Northern places Snow and Rain is frequent in the places of the Torrid Zone they are less frequent in some parts of the year and in othersome they are almost continual And therefore in these places in the pluvial Months the water of the Ocean is not so salt on the shoar and hath less Salt in it than in the dry Months Yea in many Regions of the Coast of Malabar the Ocean is fresh in the pluvial Months by reason of the abundance of water that floweth from the top of the Mountain Gatis and falleth into the Sea for this very reason in divers Seasons of the year the same Ocean is of a various saltness yet because in the Northern places the Rains and Snows are continual throughout the whole year therefore this Sea is less salt than in the Torrid Zone The 5th Cause 5. The fifth Cause is the dissimilary solution or unequal faculty of the Water to dissolve this Salt and unite it to its self for hot water sooner uniteth Salt unto it self than cold Water although therefore in the Northern places of the Ocean the shoars and Channels of the same contain more or the like quantity of Salt that those places of the Torrid Zone do yet because the water is there more cold it is not so able to dissolve and unite the Salt to it self so subtily us the water in the Torrid Zone which is more hot The 6th Cause 6. The sixth cause is the exoneration of many and great Rivers into the Sea but this cause only taketh place in the parts of the Ocean that are vicine to the shoars but is not discovered in the remote parts So Mariners affirm that the Ocean on the Coast of Brasilia where the Silver-River disburtheneth it self loseth it saltness and affordeth fresh waters fifteen miles distant from the shoar The same is observed of the African Ocean on the Coasts of Congi where the River Zaire exonerateth it self and of many more Rivers Unto these add runing Fountains in some parts of the bottom of the Ocean These are the Causes which seem to concur to the variety and diversity of saltness in divers parts of the Ocean from which the saltness of every one of the Seas may be explained From whence also it is easy to give an account why the water of the German and Northern Ocean is less apt to separate Salt from it self by coction than the water of the Spanish Ocean the Canary Isles and that of Cape Verd whence the Dutch fetch Salt in great abundance and transport it into the Northern Regions viz. this Ocean is more near the Torrid Zone and receiveth water from the Ocean of the Torrid Zone the other is more remote from the Frigid Zone yet I cannot deny the constitution of the Channels themselves to be more or less saline The Sea-water at Guinee in the Ethiopick Ocean affordeth Salt at one coction as white as snow such as neither the Spanish Ocean nor any other in Europe do produce at one coction or boyling Proposition XI Why Rain-water in the middle of the Ocean is found sweet but the water which we separate from the Marine or Salt-water either by decoction or distillation is yet notwithstanding found salt when yet the Rain-water proceedeth from the Vapours exhaled from the Sea Fresh-water abstracted from Salt-water The Learned Chymists or true Naturalists have hitherto laboured in vain that they might find out an Art by which they might distill and abstract fresh water from the water of the Ocean which would be of great advantage but as yet their Labours have proved fruitless for although as well in the decoction as distillation Salt may be left in the bottom of the Vessel yet the water separated by decoction as well as distillation is yet found salt and not fit for men to drink which seemeth wonderful unto those that are ignorant of the cause Yet Chymistry that is true Philosophy hath taught the reason for by the benefit of this we know that there is a twofold salt in Bodies or two kinds of salt which although they agree in tast yet they much differ in other qualities one of these Artists term fixed the other volatile salt The fixed salt by reason of its gravity is not elevated in distillation but remaineth in the bottom of the Vessel but the volatile salt is full of spirit and indeed is nothing else but a most subtile spirit that is elevated by a very light fire and therefore in the distillation ascendeth with the fresh water and is more firmly united by reason of the subtilty of the Attoms neither is this volatile salt found only with fixed salt in Sea-water but almost in all bodies as Chymistry proveth by experience but in some in a greater and in othersome in a lesser quantity in a greater quantity in sharp tasted Herbs in a lesser in oily Herbs Therefore difficulty consisteth in the separation of this salt spirit or volatile salt from the water But why the pluvial water in the midst of the Sea is no less fresh than on the Land seeing that yet it is generated by abstraction of the exhalations of the Ocean caused by the fervour of the Sun or from some subterraneous fire which evaporation doth little differ from distillation The cause seemeth to be Fourfold 1. A slow operation by which the tenuous part is only elevated from the Ocean which although it containeth a saline volatile spirit yet it hath it in less quantity than if that this exhalation were caused by a more forcible heat 2. The long way that this vapour passeth through before that it arriveth unto that Region of the Air where it is condensated into rain in passage it is possible that the saline spirit is by degrees separated from the watery particles 3. The admixture of other watery particles existing in the air 4. A Refrigeration Coition and condensation of the vapour for these exhalations exhaled from the Ocean by degrees are more and more refrigerated and being conjoyned with other obvious and admixed vapours they condense into a more thick vapour or cloud in this Refrigeration and condensation or coition of the saline spirit with the fiery particles they fly into the more exalted part of the Air. Now why the same is not performed in distillation where the vapours exalted are also condensed the cause is 1. That by reason of the small passage the saline spirit is as yet over straitly conjoyned to the watery particles 2. That the vapour restrained in the vessel admitteth not a free passage to the evolant spirit Proposition XII Sea-water is more ponderous than fresh water and the water of one Sea is more heavy than another Sea water more heavy than fresh water The cause is manifest from what hath been said
vicine place is to be found whereby it may come unto those Northern Regions Seeing that therefore this flux is perpetual neither doth the water come by a manifest way unto those Regions whence the flux is made therefore it seemeth necessary to conclude that the waters come through subterraneous passages unto those Northern Regions and so there to be effused from the holes of the Channel as from a spring and that the water moveth hence towards the South There falleth in another cause taken from the former For the water of the Ocean in the Torrid Zone is more heavy than that in the Northern places by reason of the great abundance of Salt as we have proved in the Eighth and Twelfth Proposition Therefore the water or Ocean in the Torrid Zone doth more press through the Orifices of the Subterranean passages than in the Northern places and therefore in these places the water less resisting suffereth the water to flow from the Orifices of the Channels Unto this I answer That that flux of the Ocean is not only from the North as the Objection seemeth to inferr and as some especially the Ancients conceived of it who would have the water to flow in four Channels from the very Pole as also some Geographical Maps do exhibit it neither is it continual but is observed by reason of the frequency of Northern Winds moreover the great and perpetual abundance of Snow and Rain in those places augmenteth the water and causeth it to flow towards the South Add likewise that in other parts another motion of the Ocean is found concerning which see the following Chapter 3. It seemeth not absurd but rather most true that all the Fountains of Rivers taken together disburthening themselves into the Ocean are the very Fountains of the Ocean For seeing that in perpetual progress of time so great an abundance of water floweth from them into the Ocean questionless the water cometh from the Ocean to the very Springs and Channels of the Rivers partly through the Subterranean passages and partly by Rains 4. It may seem to prove that the Fountains of the Ocean may be in the very Channel because that in the bottom of the Ocean in some parts sweet or fresh water is found which could not be but by some Fountains flowing in the bottom Linschaten relateth that in Ormus fresh water is drawn by divers in the Ocean at the depth of four or five Orgya and the like Fountains are found in other parts of the Ocean and Bays Unto this I answer That few such Springs have yet been found which suffice not the vast Ocean Neither do we dispute concerning these Fountains as we have said before Hence it is manifest that in some sort it is true and we may well say that the Ocean hath Springs but not in that sense that we are wont to speak concerning the Springs of Rivers and in which we would have our Proposition to be taken Hence also it is manifest what we ought to think concerning that Question viz. Whether the Sea is always one and the same and perpetually so remaineth or whether it be another thing whose parts are perpetually consumed and generated again Proposition VIII The saltness of the Waters proceedeth from the particles of Salt which are mixed with it but whence they may exist or are so augmented is the doubt Of the Saltness of the Sea-water Experlence proveth the first member of the Proposition by which it is commonly known that Salt is made of Sea-water by decoction of the water or by the heat of the Sun or the fervour of the Fire In Germany and other places the water is separated by the help of the Fire In France the greater heat of the Sun performeth the same the Ocean being let into certain Trenches made in which in the space of some Months the water being exhaled by the force of the Sun Of Salt and of what made concreted and hard Salt is found On the shoars of many Regions as of England and other parts plenty of Bay-Salt is found the Sea-water continually overflowing those shoars leaveth daily some particles or humors from which the water exhaleth and concrete Salt is left whose blackness is taken away by boyling although it be washed away and dissolved from many Coasts by the violence of the Ocean which is the cause that it is not found on all Coasts Seeing therefore that this Experiment is common Aristotle had small reason to alledge a false Experiment concerning a waxen Vessel let down into the Sea Hence it is manifest that the proximate cause of the Saltness of the Sea-water or the true subject of this saltness is the Saline particles which are contained in that water Therefore the Aristotelians with their Master spake improperly and obscuredly without cause when they defend and say That the saltness of the Sea proceedeth from the adustion of the Sea caused by the Sun or from the adust particles But of this more anon The chief difficulty and controversie is concerning the other member of the Proposition Whence these Salt particles of the Ocean exist Aristotle supposeth that dry exhalations or fumes all which he saith are of an adust and Saline nature elevated from the Earth are mixed with humid vapours and when that these have met together in Rain they fall with these into the Sea and that thence proceedeth the saltness and Salt particles in the Sea See Aristotle lib. 2. chap. 7. and on this account he seemeth to defend this Opinion because that from thence he may render a reason why the Sea is always salt But other Peripateticks will have it and so do endeavour to draw Aristotle to their part that this saltness is in the Sea it self by reason that it is perpetually scorched by the heat of the Sun a sign of which is that the water is found by so much the less salt by how much it is more deep or remote from the superficies for in the superficies we discover it to be most salt Both these Opinions are obstructed with great difficulties and absurdities so that it seemeth wonderful that the minds of Philosophers and Learned men could acquiesce in them First the opinion of Aristotle is thus obstructed that Salt-rain should be found in the Ocean which never yet was found to be void of all tast of salt Secondly the Sea should be less salt when it raineth not for a long time the contrary of which yet is found The other Opinion hath these difficulties 1. It is false that the waters of the Ocean are found the less salt by how much they are nigh to the bottom for there are few places viz. in those bottoms where Springs of fresh water do flow 2. Experience testifieth that fresh water although long exposed to the Sun or heat of the Fire yet doth not become salt This Objection Scaliger endeavoureth to avoid by an over-nice subtilty for he saith that this hapneth in these Observations by reason of
the exiguity of the water which doth not grow thick but resolveth For although you take a great quantity of water and that you provoke with a light and gentle fire that the resolution may be impeded yet the water acquireth no salt tast 3. Lakes and Marshes though heated by the Sun yet wax not salt This Objection also Scaliger endeavoureth to avoid saying that this hapneth by the succession of fresh water And the same is found in those standing Pools and Lakes which only proceed from Rain or Snow dissolved where there is no place for that refuge of succession for those Lakes are rather dried when that it raineth not for a long space than turned into Salt or rendred salt Therefore rejecting those false Opinions concerning the cause and original of Salt in the Ocean let us lay hold of one of the most probable Opinions with little or no difficulty in it viz. 1. That these particles are Coeternal with the very Ocean and therefore we should no more dispute concerning their original than concerning the original of the Ocean it self the Earth yea and of the original and generation of the World 2. If that this Opinion be less complacent we may make choice of another viz. that these salt particles are here and there pulled from the Earth and so dissolved into water Now it is certain that there are many saline Mountains or Rocks in the bosom of the Sea Isle of Ormus a salt Rock The whole Isle of Ormus is nothing else but a white and hard Salt of which they make the Walls of their Houses and therefore no Fountain of fresh water is found in that Isle And none can be ignorant how that many mines of Salt are found on the Land and we have related concerning some in the Eleventh Chapter but we need not particulars Let us consider the whole Earth The greatest part of the Earth hath much Salt in it the greatest part of which is nothing else but a Salt for it hath its consistency from Salt for the Chymical Philosophers do rightly prove that the consistency and compaction of every thing proceedeth from Salt and Experience is answerable to the Assertion for if that you take an hard piece of Earth and burn it to ashes much Salt will be found in it Nothing can be alledged against this Opinion that is of any value and is not easily refuted for some say that it is impossible that those salt parts of the Earth should perpetually suffice and should not at some time or other be consumed by the water of the Ocean which continually taketh away some part of them Unto this I answer That the Salt of the Ocean is not consumed in so great abundance that it should stand in need of much instauration and if that any be consumed yet notwithstanding that is laid up in another place seeing that it is not removed out of the Earth Proposition IX Whether that Water be the fresher in the Ocean by how much it is nigher the bottom and why in some parts of the Ocean fresh Water is found in the bottom Of the freshness of Water in the Sea Unto the first I Answer That experience doth not testifie concerning that sweetness but in some places of which the other Question speaketh that in these places in the bottom of the Sea are Fountains of fresh water I have sufficiently said for it cannot naturally be that the more Salt-water should exist above water less Salt seeing that that is more heavy Those places of the Sea where fresh water is found to spring at the bottom may be collected by those that are studious from the Writers of Geography Proposition X. The Water of the Ocean becometh less salt by how much it is nearer the Poles and on the contrary the more salt by how much it is more near the Aequator or Torrid Zone Although this may be understood of most parts of the Ocean yet the Proposition admitteth of some exceptions The cause of this inequality in saltness is sixfold The Causes of the inequality of the saltness of the Sea in different places 1. That the heat of the Sun in the Torrid Zone lifteth up more vapours from the Ocean into the Clouds than in the Northern places which are the vapours of fresh-water because that the particles of Salt by reason of their gravity are not so easily lifted up Seeing therefore that from the Water of the Ocean of the Torrid Zone or where the place is more near the Torrid Zone so much the vapours are separated by the heat of the Sun thence it cometh to pass that the water that is lest is found more salt there than in the Northern places where there is not so much fresh-water separated by reason of the weak heat of the Sun The 2d Cause 2. The second Cause is the heat or cold of the water for the same numerical water or salt meat as also pickled meat sauce and the like afford a more sensible saltness to the tast when they are eaten hot than when cold for the heat or particles of the fire do move and render the particles of the salt contained in such meat more acute and separates them from the admixtures whence they bite and prick the Tongue more sharply Now because the water of the Ocean is the more hot by how much it is nigher the Aequator or the parallels of the Sun at every day and contrariwise the more cold by how much it is more near the Pole thence it followeth that waters though they should contain the same quantity of salt yet they must seem and appear so much the salter to the tast by how much they are nearer to the Torrid Zone and by how much they are more near the Pole by so much they have less sensible Salt The 3d Cause 3. The third Cause is the more or less quantity of Salt in the diverse parts of the Channel of the Ocean for as we find in the parts of the Earth that there are not pits of Salt in them all neither where they are found is there the like quantity of Salt must be held concerning the part of the Earth that the Sea washeth or covereth that is the Channel or the Shoars where there is therefore most quantity of Salt or Mineral in the bottom or shoar of the Ocean there the water is more salt because that it is impregnated with a greater quantity of Salt So the Isle of Ormus consisteth all of Salt therefore the adjacent Ocean hath very Salt waters But whether there be greater plenty of Salt in the Channel and shoars of the Ocean in the Torrid Zone or more saline Mines than in the North is very doubtful by reason of the want of observation yet it seemeth probable unto some that there is greater quantity of Salt in those places by reason of the greater heat of the Sun by which the parts of the water are separated from the Terrestrial and
participations of Minerals are to be applied to Vitriol Sulphureous and Mercurial waters and the like and more especially to these to wit to Salt Vitriolate and Sulphureous because in these Nature it self doth exhibit this fourfold variety I doubt whether that Corporeal waters of a mixed subtilty do exist Spirituous Metallick waters are very rare but Sulphureous and Salt waters are frequent But the Corporeal and Spirituous because these sorts of Metals are both found in many places of the Earth and also in a greater quantity and easily suffer their particles to be gnawed off they send out also frequently a fume and vapour We will explain by one Example this fourfold variety of participation and that in Gold 1. In the preceding Chapter and the sixteenth Proposition we have enumerated those Riverets which carry grains of Gold and with this Treasury make glad the Natives such are many in the Earldom of Tirol and the places adjacent and we have said that the Rhine it self Albis Danube and most great Rivers in some places carry grains of Gold as also of other Metals and Minerals by reason that they receive Golden or Gold-bearing Riverets The Rhine carrieth grains of Gold commixed with Clay and Sand in many places but especially at these 1. Near Curia in Rhetia 2. At Meinfield 3. At Eglinsan 4. At. Secningham 5. At the Town Augst not far from Basil 6. At Norinburgh 7. At Wormes 8. At Seltz 9. At Mentz 10. At Bacherack 11. At Bononia and the like The Reader may see those Gold-bearing Riverets which the Rhine receiveth in Thurnhuserus as also those that the Danube and Albis do receive In the water of this viz. the Albis are found grains of Gold 1. At Leutmeritz in Bohemia 2. At Puru 3. At Dresda in Misnia 4. At Torga 5. At Magdeburgh 6. At the Tower of Lunenburgh fifteen miles from Hamburgh Concerning the Gold-bearing Riverets consult the forecited Book of Thurnhuserus where also you may see those that carry other Mettals and Minerals These Waters are therefore the Corporeal Golden-waters of the first mode viz. those that carry grains of Gold which less properly are termed Mineral or Golden because the Golden-grains are not permixed with the water but are carried down by the rapid Current of the water and the waters themselves are simple or uncompounded 2. Golden Corporeal-waters of a subtile commixtion to wit the Atoms of whose waters are mixed with the Atoms of the Gold as we have said of the Aqua Regia of the Chymists which dissolveth the Gold and uniteth it to it self by Atoms And now because there may be like waters which whether they be carried through Golden-lands or Mines may gnaw off and dissolve some Golden-Atoms of it with Earthly ones such Golden-waters many Riverets seem to be which Thurnhuserus writeth to participate of Gold and reckoneth them up in the description of the Danube Rhine and other great Rivers 3. The Golden Spirituous-waters are very few and some of those are they peradventure which Thurnhuserus enumerateth Now such waters are less noted or sensible because Golden-Earth and Mines are very rare and that in a small quantity Moreover where the Mines are a quantity of other Minerals are also together with the Gold whence the water receiveth many more Spirits Yet some Riverets in the high Alpes of Bohemia are said to participate of these Golden-Spirits also in Silesia and the Mountain that they call Fitchtelberg The Pepper-Baths in the Bishoprick of Curia are believed to be impregnated with such a Spirit but by reason of the admixture of other Minerals in greater quantity the waters receive a less sensible quality from it 4. Golden-waters which carry both Atoms of Gold and Spirit are some of the Riverets mentioned by Thurnhuserus We will add the Example of Salt-waters Example of Salt-waters 1. Salt Corporeal-waters viz. which carry the more gross particles of Salt and not accurately mixed they are many and sufficiently known to any person as certain Springs of which Salt is made Hitherto appertaineth the Sea-water if that it be made more gross by the heat of the fire 2. Salt Corporeal subtile-waters which contain the Salt reduced into little particles they are those which when they are most Salt yet withal they are very pellucid and subtile as many salt Springs and tenuous Sea-water although that there be great difference in this subtile commixtion Hitherto appertaineth the Vrin of all Animals 3. Salt Spirituous-waters which contain not the particles of Salt but the spirit of Salt they are such that if you should boyl many Vessels of them yet notwithstanding you should receive no Salt Not a few of these are in Germany and elsewhere but they are rarely found simple 4. Salt Corporeal and Spirituous-waters which have particles of Salt and Spirit Almost all the Corporeal have also some portion of Saline spirit but most of them very little So near the City Saltzinga not far from the Rhine the Fountains are salt the water of which though more salt than other waters yet it affordeth less Salt because its sharp and salt sapor is sharpned by a spirit or volatile Salt that flyeth away in the boyling Hence it is manifest how this fourfold difference of participation is to be applied unto every sort of Mineral waters viz. Vitriolate-waters Alom-waters Lead-waters and the like Proposition V. To reckon up the noted differences of Mineral Waters The noted differences of Mineral Waters In the foregoing Propositions we have explained the true kinds and differences of Mineral waters taken from the very essence of them viz. from the particles of the Minerals which they carry or by which they are impregnated but those differences because they do not so strike the senses and moreover by reason of the various mixture of Minerals communicate various properties to the water wherefore they are less vulgarly known for the denomination of all Bodies ariseth from manifest qualities on the Sense as also doth the celebrity of waters amongst men The explication and cause of which apert qualities and properties must be sought from the inmost composition of things Therefore the noted and famous differences or species of Liquors flowing from the Earth and also known to the Vulgar sort of men are these ten to wit 1. Sowr-waters 2. Bitter 3. Hot 4. very Cold 5. Oily and Fat 6. Poysonous 7. Coloured 8. Ebullient 9. Water that converts less hard into harder or after any other mode changing any Bodies cast in or stained with them 10. Salt-waters And in the 11th place we may add those which are endowed with any other wonderful property Unto these Classes those that are studious in these things may reduce all Waters which are found described in Authors We shall only in brief shew their generation and differences and alledge some Examples Proposition VI. To explain the cause or generation difference or kinds of Acid or Sowr Waters Of Sowr Waters Great is the celebrity of Acid waters or Springs they
a Fountain of so great force that it dissolveth stones Near unto Tours in France are Caves to be seen tearmed commonly Les Caves Gouttieres from the roof of which the water which falleth is formed into divers shapes as Nuts Almonds and the like The hot Fountain of Japan burneth all things and devoureth cloth iron flesh c. The studious may collect divers other examples from other Authors and reduce them to this Classis if that they seem not possible to be reduced to any of the former The Causes must be sought from the peculiar situation and property of each place Proposition XVIII To enumerate those Fountains which break forth at a set time not continually to explain the cause and those which ebb and flow Of Fountains which break forth at a set time not continually This Proposition belongeth not to this Chapter but to the preceding yet because it belongeth to the wonder of waters and was neglected in the former Chapter here it shall be explained In a Fountain situated on the top of an high Hill in the Province of Canaugh in Ireland the water ebbeth and floweth every day with the flux and reflux of the Sea yet the water is fresh The same is observed in the Fountain Louzara which is in the mountainous places of Galaecia called Cabreti 20 miles from the Sea Also in Aquitain in the Village Marsacus is a Fountain which imitateth the swelling of the Sea and swelleth with the increase of Garumnae in Burdeaux Elsewhere there are said to be Fountains which augment and decrease contrary to the swelling of the Sea In Wales near the mouth of the River Severn is a Pool called Linliguna which swalloweth in the Marine floods whilst that they arise but it is by no means filled with the same and the flood of the Sea ceasing then it riseth with a great force and vomiteth out the water with which it covereth the Banks In Biscay there are the four Springs Tamarici whereof three every day are so dried twelve times as if that no water were in them as Pliny reporteth But I question whether they be to be found at this day In Savoy is a Fountain of noted magnitude callen Wonderful which sinketh low twice in an hour and twice floweth and before that it floweth and doth break forth with a great noise it floweth into the Lake Burgites In the Mountains of Foix in Languedoc riseth the River Lers which in the Months June July and August ebbeth and floweth 24 times in a day See Bertius In a Region of Westphalia called Paderborn is a Fountain which ebbeth and floweth twice every day although it sendeth forth so much water that not far from the Fountain the water driveth four Water-mills and it breaketh forth with a mighty noise In the Province of Wallis in Germany is a Fountain called the Fountain of St. Mary it ceaseth to flow in the Autumn at the day dedicated to St. Mary and returneth in May. The Pool or Lake Maron in Palestine is so dry in the Summer and bringeth forth Herbs and Shrubs so high that Lions Wolves and other wild Beasts do abide there In Spain two miles from Valindolid is a Fountain which ariseth in May and falleth in November All Baths flow without any cessation or change except those that are in Rhaetia and are called the Pepper Baths for they flow only in the Summer from the third of May to the fourteenth of September then they cease CHAP. XVIII Of the Mutation of the places of the Water and Land or of the Mutation of the watery superficies into the earthy and the contrary Proposition I. To know the Superficies of the Earth which the water possesseth how great it is and that which the Earth occupieth Of the Superficies of the earth which the water possesseth WE cannot accurately know this because we are ignorant whether the Sea or Land doth possess the Superficies of the North or South Polaryland Moreover because the Superficies of the water as also of the land is terminated on the Globe by an irregular bending of the lines therefore it would be a very difficult task to compute the quantity of the Superficies of the water and land but as far as we are able to collect in gross from the inspection of the Terrestrial Globe the Superficies of the water and land seem almost equal so that the Superficies of the water is half to the Superficies of the land and so also is the Superficies of the land Proposition II. The Superficies of the Water as also of the Land is not at all times of the same magnitude but sometimes greater and sometimes lesser and when the Superficies of the Water is augmented the Superficies of the Land is diminished For the Sea overfloweth sometimes here sometimes there or taketh away and carrieth with it so therefore his Superficies is augmented more or less as it hath overflowed a great or less tract of Land as in times past it did in Thessaly Yet this variety as far as it is yet known hath a very little proportion unto the whole Superficies of the water it may be made great as we shall shew in the eighteenth Proposition Proposition III. To compute what quantity of Water the Earth containeth and what quantity of Land Of the quantity of Land and Water which the Earth containeth For the finding out the accurate and true quantity of water and land first we ought to know both the whole Superficies of the water as also its depth in divers parts of the Sea also the subterraneous heaps of water ought to be examined All which seeing that we cannot find out by any method therefore we cannot find out the accurate quantity of the water or land but only from certain Hypotheses viz. we laid down the Superficies of the water to be half the Superficies of the earth the profundity to be quarter or half a mile neither do we reckon the waters in subterraneous Channels The quantity of water may be thus found out Take a quarter or half a mile from the Semidiameter of the earth and the solidity of the Sphere may be found whose Semidiameter is equal to the residue let this solidity be taken from the solidity of the earth the half of the residue is the quantity of the water the same half substracted from the solidity of the whole earth leaveth the quantity of the earth unto which must be added a fourth or fifth part of the bulk of water or of the former half But these are uncertainties from supposed uncertainties or at least nigh unto truth Proposition IV. The Water may leave the shoar and place of the Earth which it doth occupy for divers causes so that the Land may appear dry where the Water or Sea was before and so a new Land may seem to be generated A Sevenfold Tract of Waters There are a sevenfold Tract of waters viz. 1. the Ocean 2. Gulphs or Bays of the Ocean 3.
Horizon but oblique Yet it is not general that the wind proceedeth in a perpendicular way to the Horizon because that oftentimes in the Air transverse Blasts are found So we see that Smoak coming forth of a Chimney is not carried by the wind towards one quarter but part of it is carried unto other quarters Proposition XII Why the Winds blow by an interrupted force so that sometimes they cease and other some as it were with redoubled strength they return with the greater importunity And why that they seem more continually to blow on the Sea so that it is discovered less calm The Winds 〈◊〉 blow by an interrupted force I suppose the reason to be that the cause that moveth or stirreth up the Winds continueth not always but that some space is required unto the collection of such a quantity which by such a vehemency may break through the Air and therefore because that Exhalations are more continual in the Air and the motion is less impeded there the calm in the Ocean is less discovered although that it be not wholly removed Proposition XIII Why no Wind bloweth perpendicularly from the Air unto the places of the Earth Concerning this question See Aristotle lib. 2. chap. 9. of Meteors Aristotle in his Second Book Chap. 9. of Meteors treateth very absurdly so that the Peripateticks are not agreeing concerning his Opinion neither shall I in this place relate their Sentiments The cause seemeth easily to be explained viz. that the Air being thrust downwards towards the Center of the Earth cannot break through this way by reason that other vapours are expelled or born upwards and therefore the overmuch resistance of the Air which is directly scituated under the Air moved causeth the protrusion to be made to the sides of the place in which the violence beginneth Which is therefore the more probable seeing that the matter of the Wind is for the most part more light than that Air and that is more rarified than that which is more near unto the Earth Proposition XIV Why Westerly-winds are less frequent than Easterly-winds See Proposition 10. The cause of this is manifest from the Tenth Proposition where we have made the Sun to be the first cause of Winds who so rarifieth the Air proceeding from the East to the West and therefore the Air is more thrust towards the West Therefore that this general cause may be impeded of necessity very many Exhalations must consist in the Western quarters which doth happen less frequently Proposition XV. Why the Northern and Eastern-winds are more impetuous and stormy and on the contrary the Southern and Western more relaxed and weak The Northern and Eastern Winds more stormy than the Southern and VVestern The cause is by reason that the Northern Air is more thick by reason of Cold and the Southern in our Zone by reason of the greater dissipation caused by the Sun and Heat is more rarified Now by how much the Air is more rarified by so much the lesser is it carried with an impetuous force Yet you must know that the South-winds are cold dry and violent in the Temperate Zone or the Artick Zone opposed to ours no less than the Northern-winds are unto us but the Eastern-wind is more rigid or more intense for another cause viz. because that it ariseth for the most part from the refraction of the Air made by the Sun which being continually carried from the East to the West the Air also is thrust forwards with the greater violence from the East to the West But it is probable that other causes may accede that may either help or obstruct that violence Proposition XVI Why the Southernly and Westernly-winds are found more hot than the Easternly and Northernly which have a wonderful power of causing Cold in respect of them The Southern and VVestern Winds are found more hot than the Easternly and VVesternly So this Question is wont vulgarly to be propounded yet we must know that in must not generally be understood of all places but only concerning the places of our Zone For in the other temperate Zone scituated towards the South from the Aequator the contrary holdeth true because that in these places the Northern-winds are hot or warm and the Southern are found more cold And so the nature of the thing and the condition of the cause required For the reason why the South-wind is discovered more warm to us and the North more cold proceedeth hence viz. that the South-winds come from a quarter and places more near unto the torrid Zone or way of the Sun but the Northern places more remote from that way of the Sun that is from more cold places But the contrary is found in places scituated towards the Antartick Pole from the Aequator because that the Northern-winds approach to them from the way of the Sun the Southern from the places more near the Pole But as concerning the Eastern and Western-winds I must answer otherwise neither doth that diversity of the places of our Zone and that of the opposite here take place Therefore first it is said in the preceding Proposition that the Western-winds are less frequent in all places the cause of which is the same with that by reason of which the Occidental winds are discovered more warm viz. because that for the most part they blow in the Night and after the setting of the Sun where the Air that is thrust forwards towards our place is more calid or less frigid than the Air of our place which is more remote from the West than that which lieth between the Sun and our place There is also another cause which also is of force in the difference between the Northern and Southern-winds viz. that the Western-winds blow with less violence and not so intense but with some relaxation Now it is known that any Air or Wind is discovered so much the more cold by how much it bloweth with the greater or more intense force although in truth it be no hotter or colder which is evident by our expiration which we can exhale either cold or hot Proposition XVII Why Mariners from the sight of a Cloud especially such a one that is of a pale or duskish colour predict a wind from that quarter also to declare the other signs of future winds Mariners from the sight of a Cloud predict a Wind from that quarter A twofold Reason may be rendred for either Clouds of that colour do shew that by and by they shall be dissipated and dissolved into Blasts or else the Clouds sinking by their own weight and segregated from other Clouds press down the Air beneath them and so cause it to blow Concerning the peculiar Clouds termed by the Dutch the Bulls-eye see the following Chapter 1. The Sun appearing spotted in his rising and lying obscured under a pale or black Cloud foretelleth either showers or winds 2. If that the Sun at his rising appeareth concave so that it shineth
or force in and therefore a general Wind is considered especially in the midst of the Sea most remote from the Land 2. Yet another wind may also blow in the midst of the Sea viz. if that in another a Cloud or other cause generating of a wind be very great From these two Causes it happeneth that a general wind is less or more constant or continual in divers placer Now the general winds are only found in the Sea of the torrid Zone or that which lieth between the Tropicks about the whole Earth yet in some places it extendeth it self without the Tropicks the space of 7 degrees and they are called Eastern that is the East-wind or collateral to the East as the South-East North-East viz. which blow from the East towards the West for the whole year But they do not consist with the like constancy in all the parts of that Sea but in some they are more hindred and in some less They are more constant in the Pacifick Ocean viz. in that part of it which lieth between the Tropicks so that Ships that loose from the Port of Aquapulco in New Spain in America towards the Philippin Isles that is such as steer their course from the East to the West oftentimes for 60 degrees Sail continually without any alteration or furling of the Sail with a constant East or North-East wind neither unto this day hath any Ship in that most long Voyage of 1650 miles been cast away Whence the Mariners say that they may sleep securely in this Voyage neither is there any need of guiding the Ship seeing that the general Wind bringeth the Ship to the wished Port for here other winds do impede the general Wind. The same constancy of this same Easterly wind is found in the Sea from the Cape or Promontory of Good-hope in the bounds of Africa or rather from that procurrent part of Africa which lieth in the Torrid Zone even to Brazil in the midst of which Voyage lieth the Isle of St. Helena unto which Mariners returning from India unto Europe are wont to direct their Course The Isle of St. Helena is distant from the Promontory of Good-hope 350 Miles and is oftentimes accomplished in sixteen days or also in twelve as the general wind is either vehement or slack for in this there is not a perpetual likeness the Sea-men using the same security when that they have first sailed to the Parallel of that Island for the Promontory of Good-hope lieth without the Tropicks which we have said that they use who Sail in the Pacifick Ocean from Aquapulco to the Philippins yea when that they have passed the Promontory of Good-hope they judge themselves to have escaped all danger and variation of the winds and sleep securely the wind constantly filling their Sails towards that Island and Brazil But yet this only is their great care that they may not Sail beyond the Island seeing that it is a very small one for if that they have passed it the eighth part of a mile they cannot regain it viz. an Easterly wind forcing them towards the West therefore then they are forced with great loss of their Voyage to make to the Coasts of Brazil or the other Isle called Ascension to water at If then you demand by what course they Sail when that the Ships make a contrary Voyage in this Sea viz. whilst that they steer from the Philippin Isles unto New Spain or from Brazil and the Isle of St. Helena unto the Promontory of Good-hope whilst that they Sail from India in these Voyages the Reader must know that Mariners use a threefold mode for either they navigate the Sea scituated without the Tropicks therefore they do not touch at the Isle of St. Helena whilst that they Sail from Europe into India or where necessarily they must pass by this they do not directly steer their course from the West to the East but obliquely from the North the Collateral quarter of it to the South or the Collateral quarter of it or lastly they choose such a time of Navigation in which they know that that general wind is impeded often by others But this latter because that it happeneth rarely therefore they rather make choice of the two former Modes of which we sâ—ll speak more in the Chapter of Navigation Therefore there are two Seas of the Torrid Zone in which that general Oriental wind with its Collaterals reigneth throughout the whole year viz. that which lieth between the procurrent of Africa and Brazil the other is that which is extended between New Spain or rather between America and the Oriental Islands of which the Philippins are a part The third part of this Sea under the Torrid Zone viz. between the Procurrent of Africa and the Philippins or Oriental Islands is not indeed destitute of this general wind but oftentimes it is hindred in this Sea by reason of the frequency of Islands which hindrance yet in some places is more frequent than in other some Between Mozambique and India the general wind is of most force in January February March April in other Months other winds do blow of which we shall speak in the following Proposition This general wind is more hindred in the Sea of the Indian Isles At the Isle of Banda in the Month of May the Oriental winds begin to be prevalent being very violent and accompanied with rain at Malacca in September and in other places otherwise as we shall shew in the following Proposition See Proposition 3. Yet this you must know that this general wind doth not equally extend it self in these Seas towards the Tropicks in all parts but that there is a great difference in this For the Tropicks are distant from the Aequator on both sides 23 ½ deg but the general wind may be discovered in one Meridian unto the Latitude of 20 degrees in another Meridian unto 15 in another unto 12. So in the Indian Ocean when in the Months of February and January the East wind or South or South-East bloweth it is not discovered until you come to the 15 degree of Latitude So unto those that Sail from Goa unto the Promontory of Good-hope here a general wind meeteth them at the 12 deg of South Latitude and at the 28 degree of the same Latitude accompanieth them So also Mariners have observed that no general wind bloweth between the 4. degree of Northern Latitude even unto the 10 or 11 deg between Africa and America for when they have Sailed by that wind from St. Helena towards the Aequator even unto the 4 deg of Northern Latitude then are they destitute of that wind even until they come unto the 10 degree of Latitude And from that degree even unto the 30 the North-East is again manifestly found continually to blow although that the 30 degrees be 7 degree from the Torrid Zone Yet notwithstanding in the 6 7 and 8. degree of Parallel Latitude it also bloweth in some places but in
great concernment yet it is better to begin from the Aequator that all the places may lie in some Climate Proposition XV. To shew the use of the Table of the Climates 1. The Latitude of some place or Elevation of the Pole being given to know the quantity of the Longest day in that place and the Climate in which it lieth Let the given Elevation of the Pole be sought in the Table and on the opposite Region we shall find both the quantity of the Longest day as also the Climate and the Parallel If that the given Elevation cannot be found in the Table then take that Elevation which is less near or the like which is found in the Table From the Longitude of the Longest day of any place to know the Latude of the place and the Parallel and Climate 2. The Longitude of the Longest day of any place being given which any person hath observed or received by relation to know from thence the Latitude of that place the Parallel and the Climate in which that place lieth Enter the Table with the Latitude given and you shall see on the opposite Region both the Latitude and the Place demanded as also the Climate and Parallel 3. A Climate being given to determine the Longitude of the Longest day and the Elevation of the Pole This is facil from the very sight of the Table CHAP. XXVI Of the Light Heat Cold Rains in the diverse parts of the Earth or Zones and other properties of the Zones Proposition I. These Causes are efficacious to generate and procure Light Heat Cold and Rain with other Meteors in the places of the Earth and the vicine Air. Of the causes of Heat 1. THe more or less or no obliquity of the Rays of the Sun coming to or emitted on any place For the Rays falling perpendicular on any place cause great heat and the other Rays sliding obliquely have for that very reason a less power of heating by how much the obliquity of them is the greater that is by how much the more they decline from the perpendicular Ray. 2. The diurnal stay of the Sun above the Horizon of the place For the same heat maketh more hot and changeth the Air in a longer time than in a shorter 3. The depression of the Sun beneath the Horizon being more or less in the Night season For this difference of depression causeth that either more or less Light is perceived in the Air also more or less Heat Rain thick Clouds Hitherto belongeth the Twilight 4. The more or less Elevation of the Moon above the Horizon the more or less depression of the same beneath the Horizon the more or less Diurnal stay of the same above the Horizon The Causes are the same with those alledged in the three foregoing Paragraphs The Planets and fixed Stars raise Vapours c. in the Air. 5. The same may be said of fixed Stars especially of those more noted ones and of the five other Planets Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury For they generate some light and heat in the Air although it be but little and change the Air divers ways and raise Vapours if that we may credit Astronomers 6. The propriety or species of the Earth of every place For where the Earth is more stony and rocky there for the most part it is more Cold than where it is sulphureous and fat and here again it is more fertilâ— Where there is much Sand and no Rivers there is greater Heat Fumes and Mists proceed from Lakes 7. Lakes or the Sea adjacent From thence also Fumes and Mists are raised more moist and frequent in the Air and the Rays are less powerfully reflected from the Sea than from the Earth 8. The scituation of Places For the Sun acteth otherwise on Mountains and Mountainous places than on Valleys and Plains Moreover Mountains hinder the free access of the Rays of the Sun to the subject places for to them the Vapours of the Air are in some sort attracted See Chap. 20. whence the Mountains change the seasons of the adjacent places as Heat Rain and the like For these would be otherwise in the Subject places if that the Mountains were absent The Winds cause difference in the weather 9. The Winds especially the general So the Etesian winds temperate and allay the Canicular heat A general Wind in the Torrid Zone especially the Subsolan winds in Brasilia render the Heat temperate when in Africa which is Occidental the Heat is vehement because these places feel not so general a Wind. The Northern winds are cold and dry the Southern warm and moist in our places 10. Clouds Rain and Fogs take away and diminish light and heat I suppose that there are not many causes of this variety in light and heat c. which is observed in divers places of the Earth or also in the same places but yet in a different time or season Proposition II. How are the Seasons of the year Spring Summer Autumn and Winter to be defined The four Seasons of the Year Although in Sciences we ought not to contend and dispute concerning Definitions yet because certain Homonymes or Likenesses do here occur without the Explication of which there will arise much confusion in the following Doctrine therefore I will so propose this Question that you may the more cautiously avoid this Homonyme that they may not be deceived and intangled by the same The Question comprehendeth two difficulties first Whether these Seasons ought to be defined from the entrance of the Sun and his stay in certain sings of the Ecliptick and Zodiack According to Astronomers and Astrologers For so Astronomers and Astrologers commonly do saying that that is the Spring whilst the Sun moveth from the first degree of Aries to the first of Cancer that is Summer whilst the Sun moveth from the first of Cancer to the first of Libra that is Autumn whilst the Sun moveth from the first of Libra to the first of Capricorn and that is Winter whilst the Sun moveth from the first of Capricorn to the first degree of Aries Now it is manifest that these Definitions are not general and agreeable to all places because they are only of force in the Northern places scituated from the Aequator towards the Pole Artick and not in the Southern so that for these Definitions the same persons bring Definitions contrary to the former saying that in these places the Spring beginneth from the first degree of Libra proceeding unto the first of Capricorn the Summer from the first of Capricorn to the first of Aries the Autumn from the first of Aries to the first of Cancer and the Winter from the first of Cancer to the first of Libra But from thence it would follow that those Seasons cannot possibly be defined which is false and Generals ought to be defined by Generals Secondly Definitions so made cannot have place in the places of the Torrid Zone
again opposite four days of the year in two of which the Sun shall obtain a middle distance from the place given if therefore the place given be North take two of those four days whereof one happeneth between the 21 of December and the 21 of March this shall be the entrance of the Spring the other between the 21 of September and the 21 of December this shall be the entrance of Autumn But if the place given be South from those four days you must take the day between the 21 of June and the 21 of September for the entrance of the Spring and for the beginning of Autumn that which happeneth between the 21 of March and the 21 of June The beginning of Winter shall be the 21 of June if the place be South but if North the 21 of December 3. If the place given be between the Aequator and the eighth degree of Latitude it shall have two Summers and two Spring seasons besides Autumn and Winter except peradventure we will cast away that second Spring which is intermedial between the two Summers as we said in the end of the preceeding Proposition and attribute a continual Summer to that time which if you do we must act no otherwise with the given place than in the former Mode If we will attribute two Summers and two Springs to it as the definitions of Summer and Spring accurately observed do require we shall first act by the first Mode as in the former Theorems viz. we shall find the entrance of Summer and Winter and except the four days of moderate distance found in the Table of those four those two which we advised to take in the former Mode for the entrance of the Spring and Autumn here again we shall take on the same conditions but of the other two days that only which is proximate to the day of the Summer shall be taken For this will shew the end of the Summer and the beginning of the second Spring but for the day of the second Summer another day of the three remaining shall be taken in that Area from which the beginning of the first Summer was taken viz. that which is distant by an equal number of days from the 21 of June and the 21 of Capricorn if the place be South the first day of the Summer So the days shall be found in which the Summer the Spring Autumn and the Winter do begin and end in the places of the Torrid Stone Proposition V. In the places in the temperate and frigid Zones the four seasons of the year are almost equal or consist of an equal number of days But in the places of the Torrid Zone they are unequal Neither are only the times of the divers seasons unequal but also the time of the season in the divers places of the Zones is unequal The seasons of the year in the places in the Temperate and Frigid Zone are equal 1. For the places of the temperate and frigid Zones what I have said is easily demonstrated For seeing that the Sun in every time of those four quarters of the Year runs through three Signs therefore the times of the Spring Summer Autumn and the Winter shall be equal or of equal days except some days viz. five in which the Summer and four in which the Spring of the Northern places exceed the Autumn and the Winter but in the Southern places it is otherwise for Autumn and Winter exceed the Spring and Summer which as we have shewed before proceedeth from the excentricity of the Sun 2. In places lying under the Aequator there are two Summers as also other Seasons but hoth short as also both the Springs viz. each Summer and each Spring hath only 32 days which is 64 days but the Autumns and Winters are longer viz. 55 days which is 110 days 3. In the places of the Torrid Zone by how much the less they are remote from the Aequator by so much the more they have the longer Summer the less Winter and more or less moderate Autumn and Spring for in places not remote above 10 degrees from the Aequator the Summer continueth six Months Now the greatness of the Summer Autumn Winter and Spring is known by the preceeding Proposition What hath hitherto been said is only to be understood concerning the Celestial Seasons that is those which depend on a Celestial Cause or from the access or recess of the Sun for from this alone cometh not light heat and cold as we have said in some places before therefore we shall consider the other causes in the following Propositions Proposition VI. In places of the Tornid Zone as the Sun by day is very near the Vertex so on the contrary by night he is beneath the Horizon Of the Motion of the Sun in places of the Torrid Frigid and Temperate Zones and very much removed from the Vertex of those places so that those places by night lye almost in the middle shadow of the Earth neither can the Air possibly any wayes be warmed by the Suns rayes by frequent reflection In places of the Frigid Zone as the Sun by day is not very nigh the Vertex so by night he doth not profoundly remain beneath the Horizon but for the greatest part of the night doth so turn round beneath the Horizon that many rayes from him by reflection do penetrate into the Air. In places of the Temperate Zone as the Sun by day cometh to the Vertex of those places by a moderate Vicinity so by night by an easie distance he is depressed beneath the Horizon so that some rayes at least are in the Air. To shew this by the Globe first let the Pole be elevated for some place scituated in the Torrid Zone or rather let the Pole be placed in the Horizon it self that the places of the Aequator may be in the Vertex of the Horizon or that the wooden Horizon may become the Horizon of the places of the Aequator then consider the depression of the Parallels which the Sun describeth by his circumrotation beneath the Horizon and the truth of the member of this Proposition will appear Then let the Pole be elevated for the places of the Frigid Zone or let the Poles be placed in the Vertex of the Horizon and the Parallels of the Sun beneath the Horizon from the first degree of Libra to the first of Aries being considered it will again be manifest that they are very little depressed below the Horizon And so we have shewed the second member or part of this Proposition Lastly let the Pole be elevated for the Latitude of any place scituated in the Temperate Zone and the depression of the Parallels beneath the Horizon again being considered the third part of this Proposition will be proved Proposition VII A place being given in the Globe and the day of the year to find the Longitude of the Crepusculum or Twilight in the place given at the day given That time is
termed the Longitude of the Twilight in which either before the rising of the Sun or after his setting some light is discovered in the Air. For the finding the Longitude of the Twilight by the Globe of any place and day of the year For the finding out of the quantity of this time we must suppose that which is observed by Astronomers as we have said in the nineteenth Chapter that the morning twilight beginneth for the most part if the Air be serene the Sun drawing nigh to the eighteenth degree of depression beneath the Horizon and the evening endeth when the Sun hath come to that degree of depression Let therefore the Pole be elevated for the Latitude of the place given and let the place of the Sun in the Ecliptick being found from the day of the year be sought in the Ecliptick of the Globe and let his opposite point be noted then let the Quadrant be applied to the Vertex and the point noted be found to the Horizon the Index to the twelfth hour of the Cycle then let the Globe be turned round until the noted point be elevated 18 degrees above the Horizon which is known by the help of the Quadrant for so shall the place of the Sun be depressed so many degrees beneath the Horizon and the Index in the Cycle shall shew how many hours or parts of an hour the serenity of the Air being laid down the twilight continueth that day in the place given It is convenient by three examples to learn the use of this Problem choosing a place for one of the Torrid Zone another of the Temperate and a third of the Frigid Zone Proposition VIII In places of the Torrid Zone the twilights are small very long in those of the Frigid and moderate in those of the Temperate Zone Of the difference of the Twilights in the several Zones For in places of the Aequator and those near the Crepusculum according to the Hypothesis laid down in the former Proposition is of about one hour which yet experience testifieth is only half an hour or little more because the more thick and gross Air is not so high there as is required to make the twilight to the 18 degree of depression both also because the Hypothesis of the 18 degree is to be taken concerning very small light with which the twilight beginneth such as yet is not accounted by the Vulgar for a twilight In the Frigid Zone the twilights continue for many days when the Sun remaineth beneath their Horizon In the Temperate Zone it continueth 3 4 5 and 6 hours and in some places all night and in the days of the Summer according as the places are more or less nigh the Frigid Zone All these are proved by the Mode proposed in the precedent Proposition Proposition IX A place being given in the Temperate or Frigid Zone and another in the Torrid Zone and moreover the day of the year being given to find out the hour of the place of the Torrid Zone in which hour the Sun may have the Altitude above the Horizon of that place and so strike that place with his rayes equally elevated as great as it hath in the place of the Temperate Zone in the Meridies it self Let the Pole be elevated for the Latitude of the place of the Temperate or Frigid Zone and let the place of the Sun found from the day given be brought to the Meridian and the Altitude of it reckoned for this is the Altitude of the rayes heating that place and illustrating it in the Meridies Then let the Pole be elevated for the Latitude of the place given in the Torrid Zone let the Quadrant be applied to the Vertex and let the degree of Altitude before found out be noted in it let the place of the Sun be brought to the Meridian the Index to the twelfth hour of the Cycle then let both the Globe and the Quadrant be moved till the place of the Sun agree with the noted degree of the Quadrant for so the Sun shall have the same Altitude above the Horizon of this place as it is in the Meridies of the former The Index will shew the hour demanded in the Cycle therefore this hour and the rayes of the Sun illustrating and beating of the place and Air of the Torrid Zone are as equally elevated over the Horizon of it as the rayes in the Meridies of the former place it thence followeth that the same heat will be in the Torrid Zone at the hour found out as in the place of the Temperate Zone in the Meridies except other causes intercede Some hinderances viz. first that the Sun in the foregoing days hath introduced some one or other calid Constitution to the place and the Air of the Torrid Zone and not such and so great in the places of the Temperate or Frigid Zone Then secondly that the Sun straitly ascending towards the Meridian above the Horizon of the places of the Torrid Zone sendeth forth all his rayes to the place as in one plain and to one plaga and therefore causeth greater heat than in the Temperate or Frigid Zone where the Sun moveth obliquely from the Horizon to the Meridian and sends forth his rayes from one and another plaga therefore the rayes are not contracted into a place so narrow nor do they continually heat For example let us seek in what hour of the day in places being under the very Aequator on the day of the Aequinoctials the Sun will have that Altitude as he hath at Amstelodame on the Meridies of the same day Proposition X. How the causes of light heat and of the seasons which we have reckoned up in the first Proposition of this Chapter have themselves in the Torrid Zone and how to shew them Of the seasont light and heat in the Torrid Zone and how they are shewed First every day of the year ascendeth directly above the Horizon of those places especially of the Aequator towards the Meridian and the Vertex of them and therefore about the ninth hour of Forenoon he heginneth to ejaculate to those places rayes about 40 degrees declining from the perpendicular rayes which rectitude of the rayes or perpendicular of the rayes augmenteth towards the Meridies and again decreasing continueth to the fourth hour after the Meridies or Noonstead where the Sun departing towards the Occidental Horizon beginneth to send forth his rayes more obliquely to those places therefore the greatest heat in those places ought to be from about the ninth hour before Noon even to the third or fourth after Noon if that this cause be only regarded but yet because the Sun now departs from the Vertex of those places and sometimes approacheth nearer therefore the Winter of every one of those places shall be when the Sun goeth from the points of the Ecliptick much remote from those places that is from the first degree of Cancer or Capricorn towards the points having a middle
distance from the place assumed the Spring when he goeth from a point of moderate distance towards the very Vertex of the Pole or to the point of the Ecliptick which is Vertical to the place or to the Parallel of the place the Summer where the Sun goeth from this other point of middle distance to a point of greatest distance that is the first degree of Capricorn or Cancer 2. In the places of the Aequator it self the Sun no day of the year remaineth above the Horizon more or less hours than twelve and so many beneath the Horizon In other places of the Torrid Zone one hour or an hour and an half at the most viz. in the extream places of this Zone about the Tropicks of Cancer and Capricorn when the day is at the longest the Sun remaineth above the Horizon twelve hours and in the shortest day about eleven hours and in the intermedial days that time of the stay of the Sum above and beneath the Horizon doth not much differ from twelve hours And therefore this is the cause that the nights are not without cold and the heat of the day continueth not long about the eveningtide 3. In the night time the Sun is profoundly depressed beneath the Horizon for that he illustrateth the Air with none of his rayes nay not reflex This is the cause that most dark nights are there and the cold of the night is augmented the Air is condensed and contracteth it self and being cold it descends towards the earth by its own ponderosity Moreover in a very short time about the space of half an hour before the rising of the Sun and after his setting those places have the light and heat of the Twilight 4 The Moon almost after the same manner as the Sun ascends directly from the Horizon towards the Meridian of those places yet a little more obliquely because it departeth from the Ecliptick and therefore towards the Torrid Zone about five degrees and it remaineth after the same manner as the Sun a little above twelve hours above the Horizon and is depressed beneath it almost so many hours and that profoundly as we have spoken of the Sun Therefore with her direct rayes or those near to the perpendicular she will augment the warmness of the night especially when she is Vertical to any place and diminish it by her recess but by reason of her short stay above the Horizon the effect of it is little discerned in any place except when it is Vertical to it 5. All the Stars arise and set in places nigh the Aequator but those Stars which are near the Pole in places more remote from the Aequator do not arise and those are but very few and therefore they can cause little heat and light and that also insensible in the Air. 6. In many places of the Torrid Zone as in India and its Isles in the Tongue of Africa and in Mexico the earth is Sulphureous which sendeth forth more calid vapours whence it communicateth a certain heat to the Air and a peculiar property In some places it is sandy as in the North part of Africa lying in the Torrid Zone in part of Lybia and the Land of the Negroes in many places of Arabia in Peru and in the places between Peru and Brazilia whence in these places a very great heat is raised by the Sun because the particles of the Sand do very long retain the heat received from the Sun and soon communicate the same to the vicine Air. In other places the Rivers are many and in those Sandy ones few there are many in Abyssine in Guiney Congo India and in Brazilia hence humid vapours are raised which do very much blunt the force of the Suns rayes and render his heat more tolerable 7. The most places of the Torrid Zone have the Sea adjacent as India and its Isles the Tongue of Africa Guiney Brazilia Peru Mexico some places of the Torrid Zone are Mediterranean as the more inward Africa the Regions between Peru and Brazilia whence it cometh to pass that in those places the heat and drought is greater and in some or most of them the Air is more moist and less fervent then can be caused by the Sun except other causes happen 8. Most of the Regions of the Torrid Zone seeing that they are almost encompassed by the Sea have in the middle places more or lesser ridges of exceeding high Mountains as India and its Isles the Tongue of Africa and Peru These rows of Mountains do very much vary the light heat and rayes of those places somewhere they hinder the Oriental rayes of the Sun otherwhere the Occidental Moreover the humid vapours condensed in the Air are moved to the Vertices of these Mountains as we have shewed in the twentieth Chapter whence rains and clouds proceed by which the heat and light of the Sun is very much obstructed and the Celestial cause of the Seasons is disturbed There are few of the places of the Torrid Zone which want those ridges as the inward Africa Mexico and the like 9. The effects of the Winds in the Torrid Zone are various and notable for a general wind blowing from the side Plagas of the East or from the East continually towards the West refrigerateth the Maritim places which regard the East as Brazilia the Oriental Coast of Africa but not so to those towards the West as Guiney Congo Angola and the Coasts of Peru. Some winds are appropriated as the South in Peru which winds dispel vapours towards the Plaga in which they blow Some are fixed winds of which we have largely treated in the one and twentieth Chapter Now these winds do very much disturb the Celestial cause of the Seasons for they are almost as equally constant and observe order as the motions of the Heaven it self They bring down the Air compel the vapours towards the tops of the Mountains and by other Modes alter the Seasons Ten Anniversary rains are in many places of the Torrid Zone and take away the Celestial cause seeing that they are as equally constant as the motion of the Sun it self For those err who suppose that this our Sublunary Orb observeth all with inconstancy and without order and that the Celestial only have a constant motion Seeing that the causes hitherto spoken of are so various to be able to cause the heat and the properties of the Seasons and in one place some are from other causes in another others are of force or concur in divers Seasons of the year or mutually impede one another hence we discover why the cause and condition of the Seasons of the Torrid Zone is so various Proposition XI How the Spring Summer Autumn and Winter Terrestrial do behave themselves and in what Months of the year they commence in the divers places of the Torrid Zone Of the beginning of the Seasons in places in the Torrid Zone We have said before and especially in the second Proposition that
the Brazilians in the months of October and February and striketh the Earth with reflex raies at most acute Angles Which diversity of these Regions promiseth the Inhabitants perpetual health by reason of the often calms and the Air quelling all noxious heats Hence it is easy to dollect that the seasons of the year do not so much depend immediately on the Sun and his motion as on the species of the Winds the diversity of aspects of the Stars the quality and peculiar scituation of the Region Moreover in these Mediterranean Regions towards the West the nights are more cold than in the Maritim so much some times that the Frost seizeth on the very hairs of the Peoples In the same months from the East about the Ocean is Summer and Siccity No Islands are opposite to Brazilia from the West beyond the ridges of the Mountains and the Marshes of Brazilia is the Winter Fogs and Rain Oftentimes the Heavens may be seen covered with vast Clouds from the East towards the West but those again very thin except in the days of the Rain the Sun both rising and setting may be beheld with fixed eyes for there is a wonderful serenity on every side especially towards the evening which never afordeth any Vapours or Clouds to the succeeding Moon but renders the night so clear that the old and new Moon may be seen in one and the same day and letters may be well read it the quarter Moon The Aether in respect of the diversity of the Planets other inseriour causes acceding receiveth its distemperature for the Heaven about evening is bright with Lightning without Thunder in the most dry and serene season The drops of Rain are very great and fall with great violence which is wont to be preceeded by a suffocative warmness The Dew here is more fruitful than that of Europe being impregnated with much Winter and therefore is more penetrating and thin especially in Summer which is manifest in all Mettals and in Iron especially which it easily eateth up without the assistance of any Clouds The Meadows and open Fields do less wax green in the Summer but more especially in the Pluvial months although the Earth then seemed somewhat more sad to the Inhabitants and the places unfit for Tillage afford Pasture See Piso All the Lands of Brazilia arise into moderate and pleasant Hills there are no Mountains of any great hight in the Coasts but yet some are discovered afar off in the Solitudes among the barren hills yet not every where but with some intervals of Miles the Valleys are interposed every one irrigated with some small Rivers and for that reason are not only fertil in the pluvial months but also in those of the Summer The Hills in the Summer months are steril by reason of the heat of the Sun so that they wither and Grass doth not only die on them but sometimes the Trees also It very seldom raineth throughout the whole day and night and for some continual days very seldom without intermission the Pluvial months do a little differ In the year 1640. as Marriners have observed there were 7 Pluvial months viz February March April May June July and August But most and almost continually from April May and June In the year 1642. the most Pluvial months six viz. March April May June July and August But the account of the other years was not much different Now these observations are to be taken only for one place and not for all the places in Brazilia Hence it is manifest that the Summer and Winter of Brazilia answereth to the Celestial account seeing that in the greatest distance of the Sun they have Rain and in the least and moderate towards the South they have heat Yet there are not a few irregularities the cause of which are to be sought from the scituation of the Winds and Earth The six rainy months are May June July August September and October 18. This is enough for the Southern America in the Northern it is otherwise For in the Province of Nicaragua it raineth for six months and the other six months it is Summer and dry weather so that passengers may travel in the night This now is contrary to the Celestial course for in the wet months for in May June and so on to November the Sun is vertical or near the Vertex unto these places so that then they should have Summer and Siccity and not Rain In November and December it is very distant therefore they should there have Rain Thus have we declared the Seasons of the chief places of the whole Torrid Zone from which being compared one with another we collect 1. That in some places the cold is scarse sensible in some part of the year and therefore the Winter is rather to be defined by the Rains than by cold in those places 2. In some places the cold is sufficiently sensible 3. In the night time especially in the last quarter the Air is discovered to be very cold by reason of the depression of the Sun beneath the Horizon 4. That it is not the least cause of the tolerable heat and that those Regions are inhabited viz. that no days are there long but almost equal to the night for if the days were as long there the Sun remaining above the Horizon as in the places of the Temperate and Frigid Zones then doubtless they would be uninhabited 5. That the Winds do much diminish the heat of the Sun 6. That places which ly in one and the same Climate have the Summer and Winter in divers times although they be very near to one another 7. That those places which have Siccity and Humidity contrary to the access and recess of the Sun are so scituated that on the East they have Ridges of Mountains and that they regard the West Peru excepted 8. That the Seasons observe no certain rule in the places of the Torrid Zone 9. That although most of the Inhabitants divide the year into two Seasons which is likewise observed by many Writers to wit a Pluvial and Dry Season yet it may aptly be divided into four so that they may not only have a Summer and a Winter but also a Spring and an Autumn For as in our parts the Spring approacheth near the nature of Summer and the Autumn of Winter so also the dry places of the Torrid Zone may be divided 10. And lastly in some places there is a continual Harvest in some only in two parts of the year and in others only in one part of the year Proposition XII To shew how the four Seasons of the year are made c. in the places of the Temperate Zones Of the seasons of the year in places lying in the Temperate Zones 1. In these places that cause which we have placed in the first place amongst the causes of the Seasons in the first Proposition of this Chapter is so potent in respect of the other causes that that
above almost maketh up and moderateth them To wit in the Regions of the Northern Temperate Zone it is Spring and Summer the Sun going from Aries by Cancer to Libra because then he is more near them Then the Sun going from Libra through Capricorn to Aries it is Autumn and Winter But in the Southern Temperate Zone the matter is contrary neither can those other causes altogether disable the force of this first and induce a new course of the seasons and be able to alter the times as in the Torrid Zone 2. Yet those Seasons of divers places vary so that in one place there may be more Heat or Cold or Rain than in another although the places lie in the same Climate but yet they cause not the Winter to be changed into Summer or Summer into Winter A Rocky Marshish and Maritim Land findeth somewhat another degree of heat or cold than Vallies or a Chalk and Maritim Land 3. The places in the Tropicks for the most part in the Summer have an excessive heat others a Pluvial Season so that they almost approach to the nature of the places of the Torrid Zone So in the part of the Kingdom of Guzarat lying without the Tropick at the same time the wet and dry months are observed which in the part lying beyond the Aequator the Summer is changed into a Pluvial Season yet then there is greater heat than the dry part of the year where they have a moderate cold and in truth in the places of the Temperate Zones we judg the Summer and Winter not from the drought and rains but from the heat and cold Now in the Coasts of Persia and Ormus there is so great heat without Rains in the Summer by reason of the vicinity of the Sun rhat both the Men and their Wives ly in Cisterns full of Water The like heat is in Arabia The Regions of Africa on the Mediterranean Sea are called the coast of Barbary Throughout all Barbary the middle of October being past Showers and Cold begin to increase and in December and January the cold is perceived more intense and that only in the morning and withal so remiss that the Fire is not desired February taketh away the greatest part of the cold from the Winter but yet it is so inconstant that sometimes 5 or 6 times in one day the Air changeth In the month of March the North and West Winds blow violently and cause whole trees to be vested with blossoms April giveth form almost to all Fruits so that the entrance of May and the end of April is wont naturally to produce Cherries In the middle of May they gather Figs and in the middle of June in some places are ripe Grapes Of the seasons of the year of Barbary the Figs or Autumn are gathered in August and there is no greater plenty of Figs and Pears than in September There is not so great intemperies of the year in those places but that the three months of the Spring are always temperate The entrance of the Spring that is the Terrestrial not the Celestial is as they reckon on the 15th of February and the end the 18th of May in all which time the Air is most grateful to them If from the 25th of April to the 5 of May they have no Rain they esteem the same as ominous They count their Summer even to the 16th of August at which time they have a very hot and serene Air. Their Autumn from the 17 of August to the 16 of November and they have that for two months to wit August and September yet not great That which is included between the 15 of August and the 15 of September was wont to be termed by the Antients the Furnace of the whole year and that because it produced Figs Pears and that kind of Fruit to maturity From the 15 of November they reckoned their Winter which they extend to the 14 of February At the entrance of this they begin to till their Land which is the plain but the mountainous in the month of October The Africans have a certain perswasion that the year hath 40 very hot days and on the other side so many cold The Opinion of the Arabians days which they say begin from the 12 of December They begin the Aequinoxes on the 16 of March and on the 16 of September Their Solstices on the 16 of June and the 16 of December The end of their Autumn all their Winter and a good part of their Spring is full of violent Winds accompanied with Hail Lightnings and dreadful Thunders neither is there wanting in many places of Barbary an abundance of Snow In Mount Atlas 7 degrees distant from the Tropick of Cancer they divide the year only into two parts for from October even to April they have a continual Winter and from April again to October they have Summer In this there is no day in which the Mountains tops glitter with Snow The seasons of Numidia In Numidia the parts of the year swiftly pass away for in May they reap their Corn in October they gather their Dates but from the middle of September to January a violent Frost continueth October abstaining from Rains all hopes of Sowing is taken from the Husbandman the same hapneth if that April produceth not Pluvial Water Leo Astricanus remembreth many Mountains of Snow in Africa not far from the Tropick of Cancer Of China The North part of China although no more remote from the Aequator than Italy yet it hath a cold more sharp for great Rivers and Lakes are congealed up with Frost the cause of which is not yet sufficiently known except we should refer it to the Snowy Mountains of Tartaria not far remote to the avoyding of which cold they abound with the Skins of Foxes and Scythilian Rats New England New England although it lie in 42 degrees of North Latitude and therefore no more removed from the Aequator than Italy yet in the month of June when Sir Francis Drake was there the Air was so vehement cold that he was compelled to sayl back to the South for the Mountains were then covered with Snow The cause is the Frigid temperature of the Earth being Stony The seasons of Aegypt In Aegypt which is bounded with the Tropick of Cancer the Spring and Temperate Season of the year is observed about January and February The Summer beginneth with March and April and continueth June July and August The Autumn possesseth September and October The Winter hath November and December About the beginning of April they Reap their Corn and presently thresh it After the 20 of May not an Ear of Corn is to be seen in the Fields no Fruits on the trees On the Ides of June the inundation of the Nilus beginneth The seasons in the streights of Magellan In the Streights of Magellan and the adjacent Regions although they be no more distant from the Aequator than our parts
are under the 52 degree of South Latitude yet they have no very hot Summer So that the Hollanders in the month of January when there should be an hot Summer found a great glade of Ice in the Creek of one of their Seas In the Mountains of the adjacent Coasts Snow is discovered all the Summer long and it is observed that in almost all the Regions of the South Temperate Zone they have a Cold far more intense in Winter and a violency of Rain and a less heat in Summer than the parts of our Northern Temperate Zone Whether this be the cause that the Sun makes a longer stay and the slower progress in the Semicircle of the Northern Zodiac than in the Southern is to be questioned In the Neighbouring Province of Peru which they call La Valla Imperial in the Province of Potosi they find so great a Cold that for four miles circumference there groweth nothing The season of Chili In the Kingdom of Chili which extendeth it self from 30 degrees of South Latitude to 50 degrees the Spring beginneth in the months of August sooner than the Celestial Account admitteth and endeth in the middle of November And from the middle of November Summer beginneth even to the middle of February from whence Autumn leadeth on to the middle of May which the Winter succedeth which is very violent and dispoileth the Trees of their Blossoms and scattereth a deep Snow with a vehement Frost which yet is discovered by the Sun except which is very seldom that the Sun appeareth not but the Snow rarely falleth in the Vallies for although it falls in great abundance and is heaped up so high that it ascends the tops of Mountains and is heaped together in the vacuity of the Mountains as in so many wells and indure almost the whole year yet being there dissolved they flow into the Rivers and Torrents which run through the Vallies with a great force even to the Sea to the great enrichment of the Grounds But although here it Snow not except rarely in the Plains yet it maketh so excessive a Frost that the like is scarcely felt in many parts of Europe which happeneth partly from the Altitude of the Pole partly from the propinquity of the Mountains from which descend so subtile and penetrating Winds that sometimes they are unsufferable whence it cometh to pass that the Maritim parts are more temperate He that is Studious may collect other differences of Region under the same Climate or in the vicine Climates from Writers for example that in England the Air is not so cold as in Holland so that they pen not up their Heards in the Winter Betwen Siberia and Tartaria in a place seated not far from the Frigid Zone in the end of our Temperate are said to be plesant Fields and rich Pastures almost no cold seeing that they scarce feel Winter where by the command of the Duke of Moscovia the City Tooru is built which is at this day so much encreased that it is able to repell the Assaults of the Tartars The Island of Japan In Japan the Winter is Cold Snowy Ruiny when yet other Regions of Europe and Asia lying under the same Climate have far lesser Winter the cause is because that Japan consists of many Islands disjoyned by a small Euripus and that it also lyeth in the middle of the Ocean America very hot in the Summer In Armenia and the adjoyning places there is great heat in Summer because it lieth amongst Mountains here and there mixed with Fields hence the more rich in some places in Summer remove to the tops of the Mountains and remain there for some months but the meaner sort in the day time defend themselves in the Mountains from the near and about eventide do descend to the lower ground Proposition XIII To declare how in places in the Frigid Zone the four Seasons of the year have themselves with the light Of the places in the Frigid Zone The cause of those Seasons with the light proposed in the entrance of this Chapter thus stands in the Frigid Zone 1. The Center of the Sun for some days or months as the place is either nearer or remote from the Pole doth not arise above the Horizon and for so many days setteth not 2. In those days when he is above the Horizon he only illustrateth those places with his oblique raies because he is not much elevated above the Horizon but moveth round it because those places are over much removed from the way of the Sun 3. The Sun is not deeply depressed beneath the Horizon yea in places near the Polary Circle or Artick Pole although the Center of the Sun doth not arise yet part of his Skirt ariseth and is beheld for some days above the Horizon before the Center it self ariseth by reason that the half Sun possesseth 15 minutes in the Heaven For example let us take those places whose distance is from the Aequator 67 degrees towards the Pole Artick let the Pole be elevated according to this Latitude and in the Meridian Crena of the Horizon you shall see that the degrees of the Ecliptick do not arise from the 19th degree of Sagittarius to the 11 of Capricorn that is the Center of the Sun being in that Arch doth not arise for 24 days viz. from the 10th of December to the 4th of January and yet part of the Skirt of the Sun for that whole time shall be above the Horizon to wit on the 21 of December the Limbus glittereth the Horizon but on the 10 of December as also on the first of January half the Sun shall be above the Horizon and half beneath because the Center is then in the Horizon But the whole Sun shall be elevated above the Horizon when the Center of the Sun shall hold the 14 degree of Capricorn that is about the 4 day of January also the whole shall afterwards appear when his Center shall possess the 16 degree of Sagittarius that is about the 7 of December But in places where the elevation of the Pole is 70 or 75 degrees there this difference between the Oriental Limbus and the Oriental Center is very little so that the Limbus or Skirt scarcely anticipateth the rise of the Center of the Sun one day or half a day From this smallest of depression it followeth also that they enjoy the light of the Crepusculum many hours before the rising and after the setting of the Sun and although the Sun ariseth not yet in all or many of the hours of the day they have light in the Air. There is also another cause See Chap. 19. which maketh the Sun first to be seen before that he is elevated above the Horizon For thence it cometh to pass that not only the Sun is seen before he is elevated above the Horizon and before the Raies can directly come from him to the Eye but also that the light of the Twilight sooner illustrateth
the Air than it would do without this refraction We shall anon alledge an example of the appearancy of the Sun proceeding from refraction 4. The Full Moon and near the Full remaineth above the Horizon for many days when the Sun is depressed beneath it viz. for so many more days by how much that place is more near the Pole Yet it is not so highly elevated above the Horizon as to cause any warmness But the Full Moon in those months in which the Sun remaineth above the Horizon in an whole revolution the Full Moon is never above the Horizon The Planets not always the same above Horizon 5. The Fixed Stars are almost the same always above the Horizon but not the Planets For Saturn remaineth 15 years above the Horizon of the place near the Pole and 15 beneath the same Jupiter 6 years beneath and 6 above the same Horizon Mars 1 year Venus and Mercury about half a year From this cause it is likely that there is great diversity of the motions of the Air and seasons in divers years 6. The Land in most places of the Frigid Zone is Stony Rocky and as hard as Flint in few places Chalky Sulphureous and Fat In these places there is a moderate fertility in the other a sterility 7. Those Regions are incompassed with the Sea but for the Mediterranian we as yet have no certain account 8. Some of the Regions of the Frigid Zone have Mountains of a moderate hight but most want them running on a plain for a long space 9. The cold Winds there frequently blow from the Polary Plaga seldom the East Wind and least of all the West In the cold Artick Plaga the North Winds rage in the Antartick the South 10. Clouds and Rains frequently perplex these Regions From these causes it is not difficult to collect what the condition of the seasons in these Regions are for in the Winter time when the Sun riseth not for whole daies it cannot otherwise be but that for the most part thick Clouds Frost and Cold must render the Land uninhabitable They are not altogether deprived of light for that time for the Moon being above the Horizon for a long time giveth light and the twilight is daily afforded from the Sun to the Vicine Horizon But the Snow the stick close about the Earth which cannot be discussed by the heat of the Sun and therefore hinder the aspect of remote things There is no fertility but all barren and uncultivated for that which some suppose by how much any Region is nearer to the Pole by so much less it feeleth the intenseness of the cold and the Fields are found more fertil seemeth not probable to me when neither in Nova Zembla which is distant 16 degrees from the Pole nor in Spitzbirga which is only 8 degrees distant such a constitution of the Earth is found but a roughness and hardness and almost in the middle of Summer Snows or at least Showers and very cold Winds Neither is their opinion helped by one example observed by Mariners in a certain Region 9 degrees distant from the Pole which most men suppose to be Groenland For in this green Grass is found and an Air more warm than in Nova Zembla as is most certain The only Animals peculiar to these Northern Regions Rhinoceros a kind of Venison is the Rhinoceros and this in the space of a month becometh exceeding fat by feeding on this grass Nevertheless seeing that as yet not many Regions are hitherto found of this temperature in the Frigid Zone it is not expedient for us from this single example to make a general conjecture especially seeing that the cause of this peculiar constitution is manifest for that Land is full of Marshes and Sedgey and the grass by which the Rhinoceros or Dear are tendred so fat is not a kind of Terrestrial Grass but Sedge and Osiers but other Herbs are not there found or any Trees From whence we may gather that that Land containeth some fat and Sulphureous Substance which being mixed which the water produceth such an Oyle and fattening Sedge but that the like Earth is to be found in other parts of the Frigid Zone hath not as yet been observed but rather the contrary Therefore in the Winter in these places is little light but an incredible and great violence of Cold Snow Showers and Polary Winds And this Winter beginneth in the Northern Frigid Zone when the Sun first entreth Capricorn although also the Autumn the Sun going from the 1 degree of Libra to the 1 of Capricorn be little different from this violent Winter The Spring indeed is less infested with this violence of the Air yet it is without Snows Showers and cold Polary Winds Yet the increase of heat in the day or rather the decrease of cold is discovered at that time viz. the Sun going from the 1 degree of Aries to the 1 of Cancer And in this Vernal season or in the latter days of it the Sun continueth above the Horizon in intire revolutions and therefore then there is discovered a moderate heat which yet is not of that force as to melt and dissolve the Snow of all those places into Water much less is it able to melt the Ice whence Marriners report that here is to be found Snow and Ice of a perpetual duration Then the Summer shall be from the going of the Sun from the 1 degree of Cancer to the 1 of Libra in the first part of which the Sun yet remaineth for whole daies above the Horizon and augmenteth the heat by some accession so that June July and August are months of a tolerable Air. In some places among the Mountains the heat of the Sun is intense but the Showers and Clouds do much hinder this benignity of the Sun and especially the most sharp Northern Winds unto which sometimes Snow is adjoyned so that no fruits or Corn can here arrive to any maturity except in some places near the Artick Circle CHAP. XXVII Of the Shadows which the bodies erected in the Earth and illuminated by the Sun do cast and of the division of the Earth arising from thence SEeing that the Shadows in divers places of the Earth which the illuminated bodies of the Sun do cast are carryed into divers places and falling on the Sense have much variety hence it came to pass that men who were ignorant of this cause were struck with an admiration and in respect of the Shadows of the Earth divided the Inhabitants of the Earth as it were into three sorts which division must be applyed to the places of the Earth or to its Superficies So that they termed some Amphiscij others Heteroscij and the rest Periscij The explication of which terms seeing that they contain but small learning we shall say somewhat also concerning Shadows which although they do not pertain to Geography yet by reason of their near affinity they may be proposed in this Chapter Of
the Shore and in the Harbours as also greater Ships come to Zeland than to Holland Proposition V. If a Ship be so burdened that its weight or gravity be almost equal to the weight or gravity of the Sea water equal to the capacity of the Ship yet it sinketh not in the Sea but when it shall be brought into any Rivers it sinketh to the bottom The reason is because the Water of Rivers is lighter than the Water of the Sea Therefore if the weight of the laden Ship be almost equal to the gravity of the Marine Water therefore it shall be greater than the gravity of River Water and so the Ship shall be sunk in the River or carried to the bottom Many Ships for this reason have perished which have been over laden by unskilful Mariners or not unburdened in the Mouths of the Rivers Now how much this gravity should be is known from the proportion of the Sea Water to River Water Proposition VI. Any body swiming on the water hath that weight that the watery Moles hath equal to the demergent part of this body Corollary The part of the Ship being given which is under Water the weight of the whole burdened Ship may be found For the gravity of the Water is known or is easy to be found For Example one Cubick foot of Water is 70 li. and therefore if the part of the Ship under Water be 2000 Cubick foot therefore the gravity of the Watery Moles which is equal to the part of the Ship under Water shall be 140000 li. So much also shall be the weight of the Ship laded Proposition VII A Ship is most commonly accounted commodiously to carry that quantity of burden whose gravity is equal to the gravity of half the Moles of water which the Ship can contain For Example if the Ship can carry 500000 Tun of Water whereof every one is accounted at 2000 li. weight that is if it contain the Water of 1000000000 li. You may conveniently lade it with the burden of 250000 Tuns 1000000000. In this sense you must understand it when they say that Ships are so many Tuns or carry so many Lasts The Spanish Carracts carry 1200 Lasts the greatest Holland Indian Ship 800 Lasts Proposition VIII By how much the Weight of the Ship laded is greater by so much the less it is tossed with storms and tempests A laded Ship is not so subject to be tossed in Tempests as when not laden Ships of 2000 Tuns are not in danger of those Tempests which are vexatious to Ships of 300 or 500 Tuns Much more might be said but this may suffice for Elements CHAP. XXXVII Of the third and chief Part of the Nautick Aâ—t viz. the Art of Guiding or Navigating of a Ship and its subdivision of the Four Parts Proposition I. That is termed the Art of Guiding or Navigating of a Ship which teacheth unto what quarters a Ship is to be Guided in any scituation of it in the Sea that it may come to the purposed place without danger I Make Four Parts of it Of the Guiding or Steering of Ships 1. Special Geography that is the knowledge of a space intercepted between two places and the properties of the same 2. The knowledge of the quarters in every place 3. The cognition of the Line by which the Ship is to be brought from one place to the other for there are between every two places infinite intercepted Lines this part is termed Histriodromice 4. The knowledge of the scituation of every place unto which by Sailing we arrive or how these places are scituated unto that place unto which the Ship is to be directed This is the chief part of the Art of Sailing Proposition II. The cognition of the intermedial space comprehendeth these things Things observed from Special Geography and Nautical Maps 1. The scituations of the places the procurrences of Angles the bending of the Shores the aspect of Promontories Mountains Bays the depths of Waters the sight of Islands and Coasts of Lands All which are known from Special Geography and Nautical Maps but most easily and with greatest certainty from observation and frequent Navigation through any tract of Land which is the only Cause that some Mariners are more fit to guide a Ship to such place and others to another 2. The knowledge of the General and Special Winds and those that are peculiar unto any place which is exceeding necessary in Navigations which are undertaken in the Torrid Zone and adjacent places For here a general Wind and in many places Anniversary Winds which we have shewed to be called Moussons Motions in our XX. Chapter do rule which either promote or hinder Navigation For the Indian Sea is Sailed by these Anniversary Winds Of these and also of storms and tempests we have spoken in the XX. Chapter See Chap. 20. 3. The Condition of the Motion of the Seas in every tract also the quarter of it into which quarter the Sea and Waves are born for they carry the Ship with them The diversity of those Motions in many places we have shewed in the XVII Chap. See Chap. 17. First of all there is required a knowledge of the Ship and reflux of the Sea and the time or hour of the increase and decrease at every day the supputation of which is termed the reckoning of the Tides for except a Master know this the Ship is often much hazarded when it is near Shores or Sands whereof most in the greatest increase of the Water do not hinder the passage of the Ship but most do in the decrease So with a flux the Navigation is more facile to the Shore and to the inlets of Rivers and the contrary is discovered in the reflux Of the supputation of this time we have spoken a little in the Proposition of the XVII Chapter CHAP. XXXVIII Of the knowledge of places viz. the North South East and West and the intermedial quarters Proposition I. In every place to know the Plagas viz. the North South East and West and the intermedial quarters The quarters very neccessary in Navigation THe knowledge of this is the most necessary of all the Problems of the whole Art of Navigation seeing that a Ship must be guided unto some quarter which if unknown there can be no direction and the very defect of this knowledge alone hindred the Navigation of the Ancients and in this is the chief difference between the Ancient and Modern Navigation For the Ancients had not a Method by which at any time in the large Ocean they might know where was the North where the South and the other quarters Therefore they could not nor durst they commit themselves to the vast Ocean but only coasted the Shores so that they might know the quarters from other signs The Ancients had a double Method of finding out the quarters The Ancients had a double Method which serveth also to the Modern Navigation of finding out the quarters
mark with a Chalk Then let the shank applied to the quarter be moved until the other noted point of the shank applied to the quarter fall in on the Parallel of the observed Latitude For the point of the falling in is the place sought viz. the place of the Ship But if that there be no Parallel of Latitude observed on the Map let the degrees intercepted between this Latitude and the vicine Parallel be taken by the interval of the Compass on the lateral line And let the Rule in the line of the quarter and one Foot of the Compass be moved together in this Parallel until the other Foot of the Compass and the noted shank do meet the point of the meeting sheweth the place of the Ship Seamen use two pair of Compasses If that you will determine more accurately by the Calculation of the place demanded on the Map or Earth it self the Problem is this The Latitude and Longitude of one place being given and the quarter in which the Navigation is appointed to another place and the Latitude of this place given to find his Longitude for the Latitude and Longitude given is the place it self 3. The quantity of the Voyage performed from one known place to another unknown being observed and the Latitude of this other being observed to find this other on the Maps Let the quantity of the Voyage performed be taken by the interval of the Compass from the opposite Scale Then if a Parallel through the degree of Latitude be observed on the Map let one Foot of the Compass be placed on the noted place the other Foot on this Parallel This point shall be the place demanded But if the Parallel pass not through the degree of Latitude let one shank of the Rule be applied to the vicine Parallel on the other shank let the degree of Latitude be noted and let the Rule be moved until the other Foot of the Compass toucheth the noted point of the Rule The place of the Map subject to the point in this scituation shall be the sought for place of the Ship If that a more accurate invention is required by Calculation the Problem shall be this The Latitude and Longitude of one place being given and the distance of the other on the line of Navigation and the Latitude of this to find out the Latitude of this other For this being known when the Latitude is observed you have the scituation of the place it self on the Maps or Earth The 4th or 5th Method also of finding out of this place is also given viz. in which the Longitude of the other or sought for place is supposed to be observed but the Latitude is unknown But because that very seldom the Longitude can be observed on the Sea therefore this Method is omitted as unuseful See Snellius Stevens and Metius He that desireth more concerning this Method let him Read Snellius Stevens Metius and others that have treated at large of it Proposition III. To conjecture unto what quarter the Ship is moved and in what Rhombe although the signs be fallacious In the solution of the former Proposition for the finding out the place of a Ship those things as noted were taken and observed 1. The quarter unto which the Ship is moved and the Rhombe in which 2. The way made 3. The Latitude of the place unto which it hath arrived Now therefore we must shew how these three may be observed on the Sea that they may be used for the finding out of the place For if that these be not rightly known or observed the true place shall neither be found or discovered First therefore let us see concerning the quarter of the course of the Ship and the Rhombe The Pilots know the quarter from the Compass or Loadstone The Pilots know the quarter from the Compass or Loadstone For what quarter or Rhombe of the Compass agreeth with the Line of the conceived Longitude of the Ship the same is put into the quarter of the Ship to be moved and to describe its Rhombe For they seldom use the sign taken from the quarter of the apparent rising and setting of the Sun which they compute These signs may be corrupted by divers Causes so that they may deceive in shewing the Rhombe or quarter 1. If that the Declination of the Magnetick Needle be uncertain in that place and therefore the quarters of the Compass do not shew the true quarters 2. If that the Sea in that place hath a flux to a certain place for it will carry the Ship from the true Rhombe although the Ship be directed unto the same quarter the fluxes and refluxes are the frequent cause of this error And in many places of the Torrid Zone a general Motion is of force and in many places a stated and fixed Motion from stated winds 3. Winds especially storms remove the Ship from the Rhombe of their Voyage although they ply in the same quarter 4. The fluxes of the Sea which are carried towards other quarters and carry the Ship with it 5. The Rudder or Helme cannot be moved by him that steereth unto any quarter as it ought to be the waves of the Sea obstructing of it All these hinder the Ship to be moved in the same Rhombe whose quarters are shewed by the Compass But how much it is drawn aside must be learned by conjecture from the vehemency of the Flood and of its quarter and the like but the Method is very imperfect Proposition IV. To cast up the Voyage made upon the Rhombe to measure it at the given time from the given place The casting up the Voyage made upon the Rhombe c. Pilots conjecture the same 1. When they observe or know by experience what course a Ship is wont to make with such a Wind. 2. If that they have Sailed in the same Meridian or vicine Line with any Wind and have observed the Latitude of the place in the beginning of the Motion and the Latitude of the place in the following time For the difference of Latitude turned into miles sheweth the course made for so long a space of time and such a Wind. Whence for the time given and such a Wind continuing the course made is collected 3. With more industry they measure the course performed by a Boat and string one end of which is fastened to the Boat and the other with the Globe is in the Ship for the Ship remaining immovable Sailing is permitted to the Boat untill it be removed 10 or 12 Orgyas of the string and the time elapsed between is observed And from this for any time of the performed course of the Ship is found out The signs of the performed Sailing of the Ship are corrupted and rendred uncertain by divers ways yea are uncertain of themselves seeing they are mere conjectures 1. Oftentimes the Ship maketh lesser or greater way than the conjecture affordeth viz. because in many places of the Sea the flux is
dissolved Snow And this they take for a sign of it that Rain and dissolved Snow do much augment the Rivers that oftentimes they extend beyond their Channel and overflow Regions also that Rivers do much decrease and some lesser sort of them are altogether dried up when no Rain for a long while in the Summer season hath fallen because that their Channel is not very profound and therefore have collected little water but those that have a deep Channel are not dried up in the Summer by reason that they have gathered so much water from the Rains that fell and dissolved Snow so that all cannot be turned into vapours except by a daily and continual heat 2. Because that there are very few Rivers in those places where there is little rain as in the more inward part of Africa there are few Springs But these allegations resolve not the question because we are not to demand or seek the Original of Rivers but only the Original of the Water of Fountains Therefore those that speak thus have not well considered the sence of the question as we have taken notice before although also the experience that they alledge is not general because that there are Rivers found in places where there is little rain and no snow although it be true in the Region of Peru and Aegypt which they assert Moreover rain moistneth not the Earth above ten foot deep but Fountains spring from a far greater profundity The Opinion of Seneca 2. Others suppose that we should not demand whence the water of Fountains doth arise by reason that water is an Element as much as Earth Air and Fire concerning the Original of which we do not dispute thus Seneca discourseth But other Authours cut in twain this Gordian knot with the Sword of Alexander For it is not enquired after how that water hath a Being but how it cometh to the places of Fountains and not to other places Moreover the Earth doth not so flow forward as Rivers do But for the Air it is false that we should not seek concerning it as they determine 3. Aristotelians follow the opinion of their Master See Aristotle līo 1. Chap. 11. who in the whole Eleventh Chapter of his first Book of Meteors endeavoureth to prove that the water of Fountains is generated from Air contained in the bowels of the Earth He alledgeth these reasons 1. Waters are generated from Air above the Earth viz. Rain therefore seeing that Air is in the bowels of the Earth and that there is the same cause of condensation viz. Cold therefore he saith it is absurd for any one to think that water is not produced from Air there 2. Experience testifieth that more great drops that fall are made of small ones and therefore the Original of Rivers must be as it were certain Brooks of water that meet in one part of the Earth for therefore those that make Aqueducts are wont to bring the water down by trenches and small Channels 3. Because that many Springs and those of the greatest Rivers are found in mountanous places very few in Plains or Valleys which is an evidence that the water of Fountains proceedeth from a condensed Air or Vapour which Air and Vapour tend towards higher places and mountainous places are as it were spunges incumbing over lower places Those are the reasons of Aristotle The Opinion of Cardanus 4. Cardanus with others suppose that the water of Fountains proceeds from Rivulets which are generated of watery vapours condensed both within and without the Earth but that these Fountains alone scarce make up Rivers unless assisted by rain or dissolved Snow His Reasons are these 1. If betimes in the morning one view the Mountains they will appear moist 2. Rivers overflow in the morning and so much the more by how much the part of it is more near the Fountain But the perpetual and constant impetus of the water bubling and leaping from the Springs doth not seem to have its Original from so weak and inconstant a cause Neither doth this opinion of Cardanus much differ from that of Aristotle but that Aristotle placeth Air with the generation Cardanus vapours with the generation to be the cause of Springs and indeed small is the difference between Air and vapours 5. Some of the Antients supposed Rains to be coacervated within the Earth in Cavities and thence to break forth as from a mighty belly and that all Rivers sprang from one of them or from some other of them neither that there was any other water generated but what were collected in the winter months into those receptacles they supposed to evade into the multitude of these Rivers and therefore that they flowed more in the winter than in the Summer and that some were continual and some not They added the same cause that we have laid down in the first opinion But Aristotle receiveth this opinion because that more water in one year floweth out from the mouth of the River than the bulks of that whole part of Earth or Land 6. Of Modern Philosophers many as also of the Ancients determined that the Earth again received whatsoever waters flowed out from the mouth of the Rivers into the Sea For the water of the Sea by an hidden passage went under the Earth and is beaten in its passage through divers windings of the Earth and strained through Sand and Chalk which removeth its saltness and so passeth into pure water I also defend this opinion and suppose it true yet so as not to exclude the cause laid down in the first and third place the reasons are these 1. Because more than one thousand Rivers exonerate themselves into the Sea and the greater of them in such an abundancy that that water which they send forth into the Sea throughout the whole year exceedeth the whole Earth as the River Volga into the Caspian Sea and also other Rivers Therefore it cannot otherwise be but that water must be sent forth into many places of the Earth even to the Fountains of Rivers Now if that this were not so we could not possibly imagine how that the Sea should not be augmented unto an immensity or why Fountains should not cease to send forth water Neither may it be objected that so many vapours are elevated from the Sea that are equivalent to the water that the Sea hath received from the Rivers For first only Rain maketh those vapours then again it is most false that so great a quantity of vapours should be elevated from the Sea as are generated from the water which floweth from the Rivers into the Sea Fountains the nearer the Sea are salter than those farther distant 2. This opinion is proved from that to wit that the Fountains near the Sea are salt and brackish and by how much they are nigher to the Sea by so much they are the more salt as on the Coast of Africa especially on the Coasts of Choromaudel in India where no Vines
touched on it because that no Geographers have hitherto made mention of it as also of the River Jeniscea and Yrtiis The River Orellana 7. Orellana in America so called from Francis Orelli is accounted amongst the greatest Rivers of the Earth It s Fountain is in the Kingdom of Peru in the Province of Quito in the South latitude of 72 degrees but this is not altogether certain its Mouth is fifteen miles in Latitude two degrees Southerly It s tract is said to be 1500 Spanish miles by reason of its great number of bendings when that in truth it extendeth not 700. Others confound with it or make the River Maragnon to be a branch of it It is in some places four or five Leagues broad but it receiveth not its water so much from a Spring as from Rains falling on the Mountainous parts of Peru so that in the dry mouths of those Mountains it carrieth little water And indeed the Moderns do much detract from its magnitude Rio de la Plata 8. Rio de la Plata in Brasilia its Fountain is in the Mountains of Peru Its Mouth is in the South latitude of 37 degrees and that is said to be about twenty miles but when it overfloweth it hath many Outlets which some account for one at that time it carrieth not much water The Natives call it Paramaguasu that is a water like the Sea as some observe The River Omaranna 9. Omaranna also a River in Brasilia flowing from the Mountains of Peru in a long tract These three great Rivers in Brasilia viz. Orellana Rio de la Plata and Omoranna meet somewhere in some Lakes in the Mediterranean places of Brasilia and emorge again being disjoyned The River Canada 10. and lastly Canada or St. Laurence in America Septentrionalis its Spring is in the Lake called des Iroquis It s large Mouth is in the 50th degree of North latitude and its tract is no lesser than 600 German miles Proposition XXVIII Whirlpools are found in the Channels of some Rivers So in the River Sommona between Amiens and Abbeville in Picardy in France is a secret Whirlpool into which the waters rush with such violence that their found may be heard for some miles Proposition XXIX River-water is more light than Sea-water Sea-water more heavy than River-water The cause is easily known to wit Sea-water carrieth much Salt in it Thence it hapneth that many things sink to the bottom in Rivers which float on the Sea which frequently is seen in Ships heavy laden that are raised up in the Sea higher than when in Rivers Now various is the proportion betwixt these waters because that the Sea-water is not every where of the same gravity nor the water of divers Rivers but yet the proportion is about 46 to 45 so that 46 ounces of River-water do equally ponderate 45 of Sea-water CHAP. XVII Of Mineral Waters Baths and Spaws Because that there are many kinds of liquid Bodies or Waters the peculiar properties of which men do admire at therefore Geographers are wont to treat of them But all of them hitherto except a bare recital of their Names and a reckoning up of some wonderful Fountains or Springs have added nothing to solid knowledge But we shall treat more clearly of them and that with a declaration of their causes Proposition I. No Water is pure and Elementary but containeth or hath admixed particles such as are found in Terrestrial Bodies These particles are not only Earth but also they are various as Oyls Spirits and the like That is termed Mineral-water which containeth so many or such particles of a different nature from the Water so that from them it gaineth or hath notable qualities which we discover by sense or the properties are notable by sense No Water is pure but hath admixed particles THe truth of the Proposition is manifest by Experience and is proved both from the differences of tasts and from distillation and all Naturalists agree that simple or pure water as the other Elements separated from others do not exist in nature The cause is the various and perpetual agitation of the particles but in Waters that I may say somewhat in particular concerning our matter in hand by the cause of admixtion of Heterogeneous they receive Spiritual particles The Rain and the Air it self touching the water consists of divers particles therefore all waters have admixed particles of another nature but there is not the like quantity in all of them Into the Rhine indeed the Danube and Albis and into all great Rivers other Riverets do flow in impregnated with innumerable particles and in such quantity that they are evident to the senses but because besides these many other Riverets do flow into them not impregnated with so great a quantity of Heterogeneous particles as are discoverable to the eyes and because that the greatest part of the water that they carry consists of Rain and Air therefore also in these greater Rivers those Heterogeneous particles are not easily discovered but must be separated from them by Art if that any one will have them discovered to the sense But we shall especially call them Mineral waters which have some notable property beyond the common waters that is that contains such an admixture of Heterogeous particles that thence possess a notable and sensible quality Proposition II. Mineral Waters are of three kinds Of Mineral waters Some are Corporeal we want an apter word others Spiritual otheâ—s both Corporeal and Spiritual I term those Corporeal Mineral waters which contain solid and fixed particles of Minerals so that these may be discovered and separated by the sight These Corporeal Bodies are twofold some carry those particles of Minerals of a very great magnitude that without any trouble or very little at the least they may be beheld in the water and to speak properly they are not commixed waters Such are those of which we have spoken in the former Chapter because that the grains of Gold Silver and the like are contained in their waters therefore they are termed Gold and Silver-bearing Rivers but these waters in property of Speech are not to be termed Mineral because that they have not these particles commixed with them but free neither do they recive any property or quality from them Yet because that men also admire such Rivers and the explication of them hath great affinity with the enodation of Mineral waters properly so termed therefore I comprehend them under the general â—ppellation of Mineral waters Bituminous Fountains and the like may be reduced under this Classis Corporeal Mineral waters But those are termed more properly Corporeal Mineral waters which contain indeed solid particles of Minerals but so little small and altogether commixed that they are not presently discovered by the sight but either by Art or a long tract of time subsiding and concreasing and are reduced into a sensible quantity as are saâ—â— Springs sulphureous Fountains and such
force being broken the Terrestrial parts of the water subside and sink and augment the Altitude of the banks of Sand whence it cometh to pass that the impetus of the Ocean is more and more broken and therefore more Terrestrial matter subsideth so that the ridges being augmented they exclude the Ocean or make the Channel more shallow 2. It conduceth much to the Augmentation of the shoars if that the shoars be sandy and stony that the Ocean runing by can separate or take away little with it so that when it can take away nothing it always leaveth some particles that in progress of time the shoars become more high and force or stop the Ocean from its accustomed place 3. If that another adjacent shoar hath less solid Earth that is light and full of Caverns for the Ocean carrieth the dissolved and broken parts of Earth to the vicine shoars 4. If that great Rivers discharge themselves by the shoar into that Sea for these Rivers carrying with them much Sand and Mud or Gravel when that they arrive to the mouth and shoar where they endeavour to exonerate themselves into the Sea they leave it partly because the Channel is there more broad and partly because that the Sea resisteth the flux of them and this is chiefly observed in Regions which Rivers overflow every year 5. If that frequent Winds blow from the Sea to the shoar and the shoar be rocky and firm not sandy 6. If that the flux of the Sea be swift and vehement and the reflux slow and gentle for the gentle reflux taketh not away the matter that the swift flux brought but suffereth it to sink If that the shoar descendeth obliquely into the Sea for a long space and bend not down directly and perpendicularly for so the violence of the Sea decreaseth and leaveth the matter behind The Land of Aegypt caused by the Nile There are many places of the Earth which it is evident were formerly taken up by the Ocean Where Aegypt is in time past was the Sea as is proved by the testimony of the Ancients and by Experience at this day For the Nile flowing from the remote Regions of Aethiopia and every year entring the Channel where it swelleth it expandeth it self through all Aegypt where when the force of the River ceaseth the Mud sinketh and also the Terrestrial matter which the swift course of the River brought in and so Aegypt becometh higher And before that so much matter was brought in by the Nile then the Sea covered the Land of Aegypt but now the Sea is not admitted by reason of the height Of this Aristotle and Others are Witnesses his words are these This place and the whole Region of Aegypt which was only made by the River seemeth always to become more dry and because that the Marishes by degrees drying up the adjacent places began to be inhabited the length of time obliterated the beginning of it therefore all the mouths of the Nile except that of Canopus seem to be made by the Industry of Man and not by the River Moreover all Aegypt anciently consisted of a City called Thebes as is very manifest which Homer also declareth who flourished as I have said after this Mutation For he maketh mention of that place as if that Memphis as yet had no Being or at least not so big Seneca here explaineth it more clearly All Aegypt saith he is made up of Mud for if that we may credit Homer Pharos was so far from the Continent as that a Ship with a full spread Sail could harldly measure or encompass it in an whole day but it is now adjoyned to the Continent for the Nile flowing muddy and troubled and drawing much Mud with it and so adding to it the former Lands hath made Aegypt larger by an Annual increase Hence the soil is muddy and fat neither hath it any Intervals in it but hath increased to a solidity The Rivers Ganges and Indus by their Inundations both cause also Land Ganges and Indus in India both famous Rivers have caused the same by their Inundations that the Nile hath also Rio de la Plata in Brazil And it is probable that China was generated or at least augmented after the same mode by reason that a violent River which they call the Yellow River flowing from Tartary into China often overflowing although not in an Anniversary time hath so much Sand and Gravel that it maketh the third part of its water These Examples demonstrate the cause laid down in the fourth place viz. why Rivers should cause the Sea to forsake the Shoar but the Sea it self is also oftentimes the cause of its departure in divers Regions viz. whilst that it carrieth and layeth down the matter by which the Channel and Shoar acquire the greater Altitude and admit not the approach of the Sea so Holland Zeland and Gelderland were made for that the Ocean in time past possessed these Countries is known both from Ancient Histories or Monuments as also from the quality of the Soil it self The shells of Fishes found on the Clifts or higher parts of Gelderland not far from Noviomagus do sufficiently testifie the same as also shrubs and ouzey matter found in the profundity of the soil Add that the Sea is higher than the Land of these Regions and hath overflowed it and would cover it again if that it were not obstructed by banks of Sands and Ramparts Yet there are some that say they suppose that Holland and Zeland were brought from the Rhine and the Mosa which is not improbable Proposition X. To shew the Generation of Sandy-banks in the Sea and elsewhere The generation of Sandy banks We term those banks of Sand that are elevated above the Channel of the River to that height that they hinder the passage of Ships Neither do they differ from Rocks but that their parts do cohere and are condensated but the Sand-banks do not consist of parts very coherent But these words are oftentimes confounded The Sand-banks do either lie in the Channels of Rivers as many are in the Wolga and the Albis or at the mouths of Rivers which is frequent as in the Wolga and the Albis or on the Sea-shoar or amidst Seas The mode of the generation is the same by which we have said in the foregoing Propositions that the Channels of Rivers are dried and the Sea forsaketh the shoar for so oftentimes it cometh to pass that the Ocean before that it leaveth part of the Earth altogether first generateth this ridge of Sand not far from the shoar and so by degrees retreateth back and these banks become parts of the Continent After the same mode it hapneth in the Channels of Rivers before that they are wholly dried and forsaken by the water The most frequent cause is when Rivers are augmented by rain or dissolved snow and so run violently for then where their motion is more vehement and Channel more narrow they eat off the mud
from the middle and sendeth forth rays it signifieth a moist and windy season 3. If that the Sun be pale in his setting but if it be red the Air will be quiet and serene the next day 4. If the Sun being pale setteth in black Clouds it signifieth a North-wind 5. If that the Moon be red like unto gold it is deemed a certain sign of a Wind according to the Verse Pallida Luna pluit rubicunda fiat alba serenat 6. A circle about the Moon 7. If that the Northern-horn or corner of the Moon appear more extended a North-wind is approaching 8. If that the Southern a South-wind is at hand 9. The rising of the Moon and the more noted Stars as of the Bear Orion and especially the Goats with the Sun 10. If the small Stars in Cancer termed Asellos be covered with a Cloud if the Northern of them be covered the Wind will be South if the Southern be covered it will be North. 11. For the most part Winds begin to blow when that the Wind ceaseth 12. When a certain noise and murmur like to an Ebullition is heard in the Sea 13. The Ancients also prognosticated from the Raven the Dolphin and other Animals 14. From fiery Meteors as from Lightning and Falling-Stars but not from the Ignes fatui Proposition XVIII Why in the Spring and Autumn the Winds are more frequent and blow with greater force than in the hot Summer or cold Winter Greater and more frequent Winds in Spring and Autumn than in Summer and cold VVinter In the Spring it is supposed to be partly by reason of the dissolving of Snow especially in Mountainous places partly because that the Pores of the Earth are then opened and send forth many exhalations partly because that the Air and Vapours are then more thin when that they were condensed in the Winter Add that for the most part in the Month before the beginning of the Spring and in the very Spring many Rays do fall by reason that humid Constellations then have possessed those houses of the Zodiack into which on the entrance of the Sun we account the beginning of the Spring and also in Autumn the frequent Rays and Exhalations are to be accounted the cause of the Winds as well as in the Spring by reason that a moderate heat proceeding from the Sun advanceth the Vapours and Exhalations yet such as are more thick and less attenuated But in the heat of Summer there are no Winds for the most part for the same reason by reason of which Rays are very seldom seen at that Season viz. because that the Sun overmuch attenuateth the Exhalations and doth not permit them so to conjoyn or meet in such a quantity as is required to the generation of the Winds Which cause is not general or always true and neither is it generally true that in the heat of Summer there are no Winds for here we are only to understand it concerning that which oftentimes happeneth But in the sharp Winter the winds are more rare and that by reason that both fewer Vapours are raised from the Earth and those also that are elevated are either condensed into Clouds or are so dissipated by Frost that they cause no wind Proposition XIX In what Altitude of the Air or in what Region of the Air the Winds begin to blow In what Region the Winds begin to blow There are some that suppose the winds not to exceed the lower Region of the Air because that they discover that the tops of the high Mountains as Olympus feel no Blasts But I question the Observation seeing that the Smoak cast forth from the top of Mount Aetna is discerned to be moved to and fro by the wind therefore I suppose that such a windy commotion may be caused also in the upper Region of the Air. Proposition XX. Vnto what space one and the same Wind may extend it self How far one and the same Wind may extend it self There is great diversity in this matter for the winds blowing from the East to the West under the torrid Zone seem to encompass the whole Earth and those also that blow either from the North or South for many days and long spaces are wont to accompany and follow Mariners The same seemeth true concerning collateral Lines but this diversity is because that the same wind is different in divers places as we have shewed in the Tenth Proposition in the end of the explication of the first cause CHAP. XXI Of the Winds in particular and Tempests IN the foregoing Chapter we have alledged the distribution and differences or rather the denominations of the Winds which they receive from the quarter from whence they blow or seem to blow which division also is accidental by reason that they are taken in respect of a certain place of the Earth unto which those Quarters are related Now in this Chapter we shall alledge the divisions and Phaenomena which are in a certain time of the year or else are proper to certain tracts of the Earth although that we desire to have more and those likewise more accurate Observations concerning these things But we will produce what we have collected with much labour from the Diaries of the Seamen Proposition I. One Wind is constant and another inconstant Of Winds constant and inconstant That is a constant wind which at the least for one or two hours bloweth from the same quarter That is an inconstant wind which sometimes bloweth and other some is changed into other winds blowing from other quarters The causes of the more or less duration of the same wind also of the swift immutation seemeth to be 1. if that it be from a general cause or from a cause less constant So Winds proceeding from the motion of the Air with the motion of the Sun in the torrid Zone are constant so those also that blow from the dissolving of the Snow especially in the Mountains 2. If that by chance there be no such vapours in other quarters which are apt to generate Winds 3. If that the circumambient Air about the Cloud of which the Winds are generated be more thick and granteth no passage to the Exhalations but if that the Air be not so thick or more relaxed and that few Vapours be here and there in divers places and quarters and lastly if that the general causes do cease then indeed the Winds are found variable which are for the most part gentle Proposition II. One Wind is general and another particular Of general and particular Winds The general Wind is termed by Mâ—riners a Passant wind which at many places at once in a long tract of Earth bloweth on the Sea almost for a whole year That is termed a particular on the contrary which bloweth not at once in many places for a whole year Now a general Wind is hindred 1. In the parts of the Sea near the Earth for here Vapours from other quarters do interpose
all places almost in the Parallels of the 10 deg even unto the 30 deg North. After the same manner beyond the Tropick of Capricorn in the Sea between the Promontory of Good-hope and Brazile the South-East wind bloweth even unto the 30 deg of Latitude that is 7 degrees beyond the Torrid Zone towards the South and that through the whole year And although as we have said that this general wind is not discovered on all Coasts much less in Mediterranean places yet in some it is sufficiently observable So on the Coasts of Brazile Easterly unto the Coasts of Loango the South-East is a Quotidian wind although that other winds do admin themselves There is a threefold Cause of this continual general wind alledged by Modern Philosophers for both it and the Torrid Zone were unknown to the Antients who have not so much as mentioned it Some Determine that the Sun is the cause of this wind blowing from the East to the West by reason that by its great faculty it rarifyeth the Air in the Torrid Zone and so it thrusteth it forwards from the East to the West seeing that the Sun it self goeth this way Some and those of the Opinion of Pythagoras that Determined the Heaven to stand still and the Earth to moved round some of them I say supposed this general wind to Proceed from hence viz. that whilst the Earth is moved round and the Air with it this less followeth the motion of the Earth but is somewhat more slower to motion and therefore whilst that we are carried with the Earth from the West to the East the Air moved with less celerity to the same quarter seemeth to meet us and to be moved from the East to the West when that yet we do rather meet it See Des Cartes in his 222 Proposition of his Principels Des Cartes alledgeth the third Cause and that altogether new in the 222 Proposition in his Principles Where he endeavoureth to shew that the Moon causeth this motion as well as the motion of the Sea from the East to the West But because that his Opinion cannot be understood except that all his Philosophical Hypotheses should be Explained therefore we shall say nothing concerning it here especially seeing that we shall shew in another place that that Cause is not true I approve of the first Cause the second seemeth therefore not to be received because that many Copernicans approve not of it and no reason can be given why this wind should be found to blow only between the Tropicks or to the 30 deg of Latitude and not in the whole temperate Zone Proposition III. Some Winds are Periodical and fixed others wandering and Erratick Some winds fixed others wandering Those are termed fixed and periodical which blow on certain daies and then cease for a certain number of daies until that they begin to blow again Some return in the space of half a year othersome are Monthly which return in the interval of one or two Months Also the fixed winds are otherwise subdivided viz. some when that they begin to blow continue for some Months others for half a year others for a Month others for a few daies Amongst these those are chiefly observed by Mariners which blow for some Months in certain places of the Sea and they call these winds as also the times wherein such winds blow Motions or Moussons And such Motions are more especially notable in the Indian Ocean from Africa to the Philippine Isles although that they be not wanting in other places there is a very great moment to be placed in the observation of these Motions for Seamen ought to choose the time of them for the Voyage that they intend to that same quarter or that which is collateral unto which that wind bloweth neither to undertake a Voyage to the quarter of this Motion but to expect the contrary Motion For in the parts of the Indian Ocean where that one wind ceaseth to blow for some Months another succeedeth contrary to the former and continueth with the same constancy until that it hath compleated its time and therefore they call these Contrary Motions They term those the time of the mutation of those Motions which intercede between the end of one Mousson and the begining of the contrary For one Motion ceasing another doth not presently begin to blow but some days fall between some times more sometimes fewer also more in some places and fewer in other some And in these intermedial daies in which no certain Motion bloweth the wind is variable the calm dangerous and for the most part the Sea is tossed with uncertain waves and sudden Tempests arise some of these Motions return twice in a year but not with the same vehemency whence Mariners term the one the great Motion the other the lesser 1. In that part of the Atlantick Ocean that lyeth in the Torrid Zone as also that which is in the Temperate Zone the North wind perpetually bloweth in the Months of October Months most fit to taka a Voyage from Europe to India November and January And therefore these Months are chiefly fit to undertake a Voyage in from Europe to India that they may pass the Aequator by the help of those winds For it is manifest by experience that some Ships that have set Sail from Europe in March have arrived no sooner at Brazile than those that have set Sail in October viz. both of them have come thither in the Month of February being helped by the North wind Yet because that this wind is not so continual and certain therefore Mariners are not wont to call it a Motion Neither is it an easie matter to render a cause of this wind in these Months unless you will refer it to copious thick vapours or to a continnual pressure made from thick Clouds But those that have wintered in Nova Zembla testifie that there is a most frequent North wind all the time of the Winter where this effect cannot be ascribed unto the Sun rarifying the Air seeing that he lyeth obscured under the Horizon Yet I suppose that in general the Cause may proceed from the dissolving of Snows or gross Vapours or Clouds collected in the Winter in the Northern and Southern places especially on the Mountains Which I am induced to believe by this Argument more especially because that these Motions blow for the most part from the North and South quarters or the Collateral unto them Therefore by reason that Snow and thick Clouds are dissolved in the Northern places by the Sun especially in that half of the year in which he passeth through the North part of the Ecliptick therefore those Motions shall then be Northernly After the same manner in the Southern or Antartick places for the other half of the year the Sun dissolveth the Snow and the thicker Clouds therefore then the Motion shall be discovered Southerly Now that these Motions blow more from the Sea in the Collateral quarters
the Seasons in many places of the Torrid Zone are contrary to the motion of the Sun viz. that it is Summer there when the Sun is most distant and Winter when he is nearest yea vertical to the Vertex Therefore we have distinguished the Seasons into Celestial and Terrestrial We have shewed heretofore and that in the third and fourth Proposition how any place being given in that Torrid Zone the Months of the year are to be found in which the place ought to have Summer Spring Autumn and Winter if we have regard to the access and recess of the Sun that is we have taught to design the times of the Celestial Seasons But seeing that in many places of this Zone the forementioned Seasons do not happen in those Months but in others and that in divers places in a different time therefore the times of the Terrestrial seasons must be taken not from the Heaven or a certain method but from the experience made in those places and as much as possible the cause of every one of them why they repugn the Celestial cause must be explicated viz. from those 10 causes which we have laid down in the first Proposition 〈◊〉 this therefore ought first to be known that the Winter in the Torrid Zone doth rage with cold and frost but rather with raines and is to be defined by a lesser heat then that in the time of the Summer Farther in many places of the Torrid Zone they reckon not four but two seasons of the year viz. Summer and Winter and these are not distinguished by heat and cold but chiefly by siccity and humidiy for in the Winter they have often greater heat than in their Summer with a shortness of respiration because the rain and the Clouds press the Calid Air downwards But the Spring and Autumn are not to be found by so manifest signs or differences We shall begin our Narration from that part of Africa which lyeth under the Torrid Zone and proceeding towards the East with Brazilia we shall finish the whole Torrid Zone seated in the West measured by us The Regions of the Occidental shore of Africa from the Tropick of Cancer to Cape verd that is distant 14 degrees from the Aequator towards the North are all abounding both with Corn and variety of Fruit there are also heards of Cattell and flocks of Sheep in great abundance The Inhabitants are of a great strength the heat of the Air a little exceedeth Mediocrity so that the Inhabitants go naked except the Noble and those that are rich whose clothing is a Linnen Cloth The cause of this fertility and temperate Air contrary to the custom of the Torrid Zone is First many Rivers of which the chief are Senega and Gambea before they discharge themselves into the neighbouring Sea they water those Regions and render the Air more humid and frigid Secondly the vicinity of the Sea which affordeth humid vapours and somewhat cold Winds How the Seasons of the year have themselves in this place and what months of the year Summer and Winter happen and are vigorous I have not found noted by Writers which is to be imputed to their negligence and sloth Yet in one Itinerary I have read that in one of the Islands which lye not far from the Promontary of Cape verd by name Salinae or the Hesperides in one of them I say called St. Vincents the Latitude is 16 degrees the watery months that is Winter are August September November December January even to February This time almost agreeth with the Celestial cause for in the months of May June and July because the Sun is very near or else vertical to that place therefore it maketh the Celestial Summer and here the Terrestrial agreeth with it for then they have a greater heat and dry Air without Rain In the months of February March and April is their Spring be-because the Sun is moved from a moderate distance to a lesser therefore they are then without rains and have a moderate heat The months of August September and October are to be ascribed to Autumn by reason of the rains although it ought to begin latter because the Sun in August hath not yet returned from his least distance to his mean Lastly the months November December and January are Winter because the Sun hath then the greatest distance from their Vertex and then they find more and longer continuing rains with some cold but this is not to be observed every year though most years But how the seasons are in the Continent of Africa is not related except that concerning the shore of Sierra Leon it is contrary as we shall now speak 2. Now succed the Regions of the Coast of Africa which look towards the South and extend themselves from the Promontory of Cape Verd to the curvature or bending part of Africa that is from the West to East These Regions are termed by one name Guiny although others attribute this term only to one part Now they lie in the Torrid Northern Zone 3.4 and more degrees from the Aequator In these Regions there is a continual heat of the Air without any intervening Cold yet they attribute some months to the Summer and some to the Winter I think the same must be understood of the former Western Coast for in the Regions of the Shore called Sierra Leon which is removed above 9 degrees from the Aequator towards the North as also in many Tracts of Guiny they ascribe the months March April May June and July to Winter especially the three first by reason that on these months there fall frequent and almost continual rains hot or warm great Thunders and Lightnings and so great Storms rage without violent Winds that none can easily conceive them See Chap. 21. who hath not had experience of them How they rage I have already spoken also in these months the Fields lie Barren but when these Stormy months are expired then they dig up the dry Earth which hath sucked up the great Rains in the said wet months and mix stamped and bruised Coals instead of manuring and so for the space of 10 days suffer the Earth to putrify and then they sow their Seed There is here so great an heat of the Air joyned with humidity by reason of the propinquity of the Sea that the Fish which are taken stink if kept undressed half a day Therefore in these places the Winter shall be in April May and June when the Storms and Rains rage The Spring in July August and September the Summer in October November and December and the Autumn in January February and March where the Rains and Storms do begin Now all these times of the Seasons in those places are contrary to the Celestial cause or motion of the Sun for in the months of May June and July great heat ought to be there because then the Sun is then vertical or near the Vertex which the heat or warmness of the Rain also