106 THE WINDS. 



LIB. in. w hi cn God had given him, esteernes much the knowledge of 

 ~ the windes, and their properties, being very admirable ; for 

 that some are moyst, others drie, some vnwholesome, others 

 sound, some hote, others colde, some calme and pleasant, 

 others rough and tempestuous, some barren, and others 

 fertile, with infinite other differences. There are some 

 windes which blow in certaine regions, and are, as it were, 

 Lordes thereof, not admitting any entry or communication 

 I of their contraries. In some partes they blow in that sorte, 

 J as sometimes they are Conquerors, sometimes conquered; 

 often there are divers and contrary winds, which doe runno 

 together at one instant, dividing the way betwixt them, 

 sometimes one blowing above of one sort, and another be 

 low of another sorte ; sometimes they incounter violently 

 one with another, which puts them at sea in great danger : 

 there are some windes which helpe to the generation of 

 creatures, and others that hinder and are opposite. There 

 is a certaine wind, of such a quality, as when it blowes in 

 some country, it causeth it to raine fleas, and in so great 

 aboundaunce, as they trouble and darken the aire, and cover 

 all the sea shoare : and in other places it raines frogges. 

 These diversities, and others which are sufficiently knowne, 

 are commonly attributed to the place by the which these 

 windes passe. For they say, that from these places they 

 take their qualities to be colde, hote, drie, or moyst, sickly, or 

 sound, and so of the rest, the which is partly true, and can 

 not be denied ; for that in a small distance you shall see in 

 one winde many diversities. For example, the Solanus 

 or Easterne winde is commonly hote and troublesome in 

 Spaine ; and in Murcia it is the coolest and healthfullesfc 

 that is, for that it passeth by gardens, and that large 

 champairie which wee see very fresh. In Carthagena, 

 which is not farre from thence, the same winde is trouble 

 some and vnwholesome. The meridionall (which they of 

 the Ocean call South, and those of the Mediterranean sea, 



