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THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY
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 Esmellen in Muscovia, quæ 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 in Volga, Jaxares, Oxus, and
those great rivers; at the mouth of Oby, or where? What vent the Mexican lake hath, the
Titicacan in Peru, or that circular pool in the vale of Terapeia, of which Acosta l. 3. c. 16. hot in
a cold country, the spring of which boils up in the middle twenty foot square, and hath no vent
but exhalation: and that of Mare mortuum in Palestine, of Thrasymene, at Peruzium in Italy: the
Mediterranean itself. For from the ocean, at the Straits of Gibraltar, there is a perpetual current
into the Levant, and so likewise by the Thracian Bosphorus out of the Euxine or Black Sea,
besides all those great rivers of Nile, Po, Rhone, &c. how is this water consumed, by the sun or
otherwise? I would find out with Trajan the fountains of Danube, of Ganges, Oxus, see those
Egyptian pyramids, Trajan's bridge, Grotto de Sybilla, Lucullus's fishponds, the temple of
Nidrose, &c. (And, if I could, observe what becomes of swallows, storks, cranes, cuckoos,
nightingales, redstarts, and many other kind of singing birds, water-fowls, hawks, &c. some of
them are only seen in summer, some in winter; some are observed in the snow, and at no other
times, each have their seasons. In winter not a bird is in Muscovy to be found, but at the spring in
an instant the woods and hedges are full of them, saith Herbastein: how comes it to pass? Do
they sleep in winter, like Gesner's Alpine mice; or do they lie hid (as Olaus affirms) "in the
bottom of lakes and rivers, spiritum continentes? often so found by fishermen in Poland and
Scandia, two together, mouth to mouth, wing to wing; and when the spring comes they revive
again, or if they be brought into a stove, or to the fireside." Or do they follow the sun, as Peter
Martyr legat Babylonica l. 2. manifestly convicts, out of his own knowledge; for when he was
ambassador in Egypt, he saw swallows, Spanish kites, and many such other European birds, in
December and January very familiarly flying, and in great abundance, about Alexandria, ubi
floridæ tunc arbores ac viridaria. Or lie they hid in caves, rocks, and hollow trees, as most think,
in deep tin-mines or sea-cliffs, as Mr. Carew gives out? I conclude of them all, for my part, as
Munster doth of cranes and storks; whence they come, whither they go, incompertum adhuc, as
yet we know not. We see them here, some in summer, some in winter; "their coming and going is
sure in the night: in the plains of Asia" (saith he) "the storks meet on such a set day, he that
comes last is torn in pieces, and so they get them gone." Many strange places, Isthmi, Euripi,
Chersonesi, creeks, havens, promontories, straits, Lakes, baths, rocks, mountains, places, and
fields, where cities have been ruined or swallowed, battles fought, creatures, sea-monsters,
remora, &c. minerals, vegetals. Zoophytes were fit to be considered in such an expedition, and
amongst the rest that of Harbastein his Tartar lamb, Hector Boethius goosebearing tree in the
orchards, to which Cardan lib. 7. cap. 36. de rerum varietat. subscribes: Vertomannus wonderful
palm, that fly in Hispaniola, that shines like a torch in the night, that one may well see to write;
those spherical stones in Cuba which nature hath so made, and those like birds, beasts, fishes,
crowns, swords, saws, pots, &c. usually found in the metal mines in Saxony about Mansfield,
and in Poland near Nokow and Pallukie, as Munster and others relate. Many rare creatures and
novelties each part of the world affords: amongst the rest, I would know for a certain whether
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