a.d. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1576. 



land, the Easterne coast waxeth more and more shalow : 

 from the North, either naturally, because that part of the 

 earth is higher Aristot. 2 Met. cap. 1. or of necessitie, 

 for that the forcible influence of some Northerne starres 

 causeth the earth there to shake off the Sea, as some 

 Philosophers doe thinke : or finally for the great store 

 of waters engendred in that frostie and colde climate, that 

 the bankes are not able to holde them. Alber. in 2. 

 Meteor, cap. 6. From the North, I say, continually 

 falleth downe great abundance of water. So that this 

 Northeasterne currant must at the length abruptly bow 

 toward us South on the West side of Finmarke and 

 Norway : or else strike downe Southwest above Grone- 

 land, or betwixt Groneland and Iseland, into the North- 

 west straight we speake of, as of congruence it doeth, 

 if you marke the situation of that Region, and by the 

 report of M. Frobisher experience teacheth us. And M. 

 Frobisher the further he travailed in the former passage, 

 as he tolde me, the deeper alwayes he found the Sea. 

 Lay you now the summe hereof together. The rivers 

 runne where the chanels are most hollow, the sea in 

 taking his course waxeth deeper, the Sea waters fall con- 

 tinually from the North Southward, the Northeasterne 

 current striketh downe into the straight we speake of, 

 and is there augmented with whole mountaines of yce 

 and snowe falling downe furiously out from the land 

 Plin. lib, z. under the North pole. Where store of water is, there 

 cap. 67. j s i t a thing impossible to want Sea, where Sea not onely 

 doeth not want, but waxeth deeper, there can be dis- 

 covered no land. Finally, whence I pray you came the 

 [III 28.] contrary tide, that M. Frobisher mette withall after that 

 he had sailed no small way in that passage, if there bee 

 any Isthmos or straight of land betwixt the aforesayd 

 North westerne gulfe, and Mar del Zur, to joyne Asia 

 and America together ? That conclusion frequented in 

 scholes Quicquid praeter, &c. was meant of the partes 

 of the world then knowen, and so is it of right to be 

 understood. 



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