144 TIDES. 



CHAP. xiv. Of the ebbing and flawing of the Indian Ocean. 



LT. in. Q ne O f the most admirable secrets of Nature is the 

 ebbing and flowing of the sea, not onely for this strange 

 property of rising and falling, but much more for the 

 difference there is thereof in diverse seas,, yea in diverse 

 coastes of one and the same sea. There are some seas that 

 have no daily flowing nor ebbing, as we see in the inner 

 Mediterranean, which is the Thyrene sea, and yet it flowes 

 and ebbes every day in the vpper Mediterranean sea, which 

 is that of Venice, and iustly giveth cause of admiration, 

 that these two seas being Mediterranean, and that of Venice 

 being no greater then the other, yet hath it its ebbing and 

 flowing as the Ocean, and that other sea of Italie none at all. 

 There are some Mediterranean seas, that apparently rise 

 and fall everie moneth ; and others that neyther rise in the 

 day nor in the moneth. There are other seas, as the Spanish 

 Ocean, that have their flux and reflux every day; and 

 besides that, they have it monethly, which commeth twice, 

 that is to say, at the entry, and at the ful of every Moone, 

 which they call Spring tides. To say that any sea hath 

 this daily ebbing and flowing, and not monethly, I knowe 

 not any. It is strange, the difference we finde of this 

 subiect at the Indies, for there are some places whereas the 

 sea doth daily rise and fall two leagues, as at Panama, and 

 at a high water it riseth much more. There are other 

 places where it doth rise and fall so little, that hardly can 

 you finde the difference. It is ordinary in the Ocean sea to 

 have a daily flowing and ebbing, and that was twice in a 

 naturall day, and ever it falls three quarters of an houre 

 sooner one day then another, according to the course of the 

 Moone : so as the tide falles not alwayes in one houre of the 

 day. Some would say, that this flux and reflux proceeded 

 from the locall motion of the water of the sea ; so as the 



