he Mediterranean and Red Sea so
vehement, irregular, and diverse? Why the current in that Atlantic Ocean
should still be in some places from, in some again towards the north, and
why they come sooner than go? and so from Moabar to Madagascar in that
Indian Ocean, the merchants come in three weeks, as [3015]Scaliger
discusseth, they return scarce in three months, with the same or like
winds: the continual current is from east to west. Whether Mount Athos,
Pelion, Olympus, Ossa, Caucasus, Atlas, be so high as Pliny, Solinus, Mela
relate, above clouds, meteors, _ubi nec aurae nec venti spirant_ (insomuch
that they that ascend die suddenly very often, the air is so subtile,) 1250
paces high, according to that measure of Dicearchus, or 78 miles
perpendicularly high, as Jacobus Mazonius, _sec. 3. et 4._ expounding that
place of Aristotle about Caucasus; and as [3016]Blancanus the Jesuit
contends out of Clavius and Nonius demonstrations _de Crepusculis_: or
rather 32 stadiums, as the most received opinion is; or 4 miles, which the
height of no mountain doth perpendicularly exceed, and is equal to the
greatest depths of the sea, which is, as Scaliger holds, 1580 paces, Exer.
38, others 100 paces. I would see those inner parts of America, whether
there be any such great city of Manoa, or Eldorado, in that golden empire,
where the highways are as much beaten (one reports) as between Madrid and
Valadolid in Spain; or any such Amazons as he relates, or gigantic
Patagones in Chica; with that miraculous mountain [3017]Ybouyapab in the
Northern Brazil, _cujus jugum sternitur in amoenissimam planitiem_, &c. or
that of Pariacacca so high elevated in Peru. [3018]The peak of Tenerife how
high it is? 70 miles, or 50 as Patricius holds, or 9 as Snellius
demonstrates in his Eratosthenes: see that strange [3019]Cirknickzerksey
lake in Carniola, whose waters gush so fast out of the ground, that they
will overtake a swift horseman, and by and by with as incredible celerity
are supped up: which Lazius and Wernerus make an argument of the Argonauts
sailing under ground. And that vast den or hole called [3020]Esmellen in
Muscovia, _quae visitur horriendo hiatu_, &c. which if anything casually
fall in, makes such a roaring noise, that no thunder, or ordnance, or
warlike engine can make the like; such another is Gilber's Cave in Lapland,
with many the like. I would examine the Caspian Sea, and see where and how
it exonerates itself, after it hath taken