MARTIN FROBISHER ad. 



i S7 8. 



passe, because it was then sometime calme, and most 

 times contrarie. 



And some Mariners doe affirme that they have dili- 

 gently observed, that there runneth in this place nine Nine houres 

 houres flood to three ebbe, which may thus come to ^.'ff™ 

 passe by force of the sayd current : for whereas the Sea in 

 most places of the world, doth more or lesse ordinarily 

 ebbe and flow once every twelve houres with sixe houres 

 ebbe, and sixe houres flood, so also would it doe there, 

 were it not for the violence of this hastning current, 

 which forceth the flood to make appearance to beginne 

 before his ordinary time one houre and a halfe, and also 

 to continue longer than his naturall course by an other 

 houre and a halfe, untill the force of the ebbe be so great 

 that it will no longer be resisted : according to the saying, 

 Naturam expellas furca licet, usque recurrit. Although 

 nature and naturall courses be forced and resisted never 

 so much, yet at last they will have their owne sway 

 againe. 



Moreover it is not possible that so great course of 

 floods and current, so high swelling tides with continuance 

 of so deepe waters, can be digested here without un- 

 burdening themselves into some open Sea beyond this 

 place, which argueth the more likelihood of the passage 

 to be hereabouts. Also we suppose these great indrafts 

 doe growe and are made by the reverberation and re- 

 flection of that same current, which at our comming 

 by Ireland, met and crossed us, of which in the first part 

 of this discourse I spake, which comming from the bay 

 of Mexico, passing by and washing the Southwest parts of 

 Ireland, reboundeth over to the Northeast parts of the 

 world, as Norway, Island, &c. where not finding any 

 passage to an open Sea, but rather being there encreased 

 by a new accesse, and another current meeting with it 

 from the Scythian Sea, passing the bay of Saint Nicholas 

 Westward, it doth once againe rebound backe, by the 

 coastes of Groenland, and from thence upon Frobishers 

 straights being to the Southwestwardes of the same. 

 vii 337 y 



