1631. LUKE FOX. 239 



On the lOtli July he had only reached Sahsbury 

 Island, where he observed that " the com passe 

 doth almost loose his sensitive part," which he 

 ascribes to " the sharpnesse of the ayre, interposed 

 betwixt the needle and his attractive point;" or, 

 *' here may be some mountaines, of the one side 

 or the other, whose minerall may detaine the nim- 

 blenesse of the needles moveing to his respective 

 poynt ; but this I leave to philosophic." 



Mr. Fox is not very happy in his description of 

 a sea unicorn which passed the ship. " He was of 

 length about nine foot, black ridged, with a small 

 fin thereon, his taiie stood crosse his ridge, and 

 indented between the pickends as it were on either 

 side with two scallop shels, his side dappled purely 

 with white and blacke, his belly all milke white, 

 his shape from his gils to his taile was fully like a 

 makarell, his head like to a lobster, whereout the 

 fore-part grewe forth his twined horn, above six 

 foote long, all blacke save the tip." 



The 20th July, near Carey's Swan's-nest, " was a 

 hot day as any in England, the Henban flashing 

 all nio'ht " and at midnip'ht ^' here was in the avre 

 many pettit-dancers,'' (so he calls the aurora 

 borealis.) In coasting along the eastern shore of 

 America he falls in with an island, in which were 

 numerous burying places of the natives, and names 

 it Sir Thomas Rowes JVelcome ; and to another 

 island he gives the name of Brooke Cobhani, and 

 to a little group of islands Briggs his Mathema- 



