The First Day 31 



Balaena or Whirlpool, is so long and broad, as to 

 take up more in length and breadth than two acres 

 of ground; and, of other fish, of two hundred cubits 

 long ; and that in the river Ganges, there be Eels of 

 thirty feet long. He says there, that these monsters 

 appear in that sea, only when the tempestuous winds 

 oppose the torrents of water falling from the rocks 

 into it, and so turning what Jay at the bottom to be 

 seen on the water's top. And he says, that the 



~ people of Cadara, an island near this place, make 

 the timber for their houses of those fish bones. He 

 -there tells us, that there are sometimes a thousand of 

 these great Eels found wrapt or interwoven together. 

 He tells us there, that it appears that dolphins love 

 musick, and will come when called for, by some men 



or boys that know, and use to feed them ; and that 

 they can swim as swift as an arrow can be shot out 



; of a bow ; and much of this is spoken concerning 

 the dolphin, and other fish, as may be found also 

 in the learned Dr. Casaubon's Discourse of Credulity 

 and Incredulity, printed by him about the year 1670. 

 I know, we Islanders are averse to the belief of 

 these wonders ; but there be so many strange 



-creatures to be now seen, many collected by John 

 Tradescaht, and others added by my friend Elias 

 Ashmole, Esq., who now keeps them carefully and 

 methodically at his house near to Lambeth, near 

 London, as may get some belief of some of the 

 other wonders I mentioned. I will tell you some 

 of the wonders that you may now see, and not till 

 then believe, unless you think fit. 



You may there, see the Hog : fish, the Dog-fish, the 

 Dolphin, the Cony-fish, the Parrot-fish, the Shark, 

 the Poison-fish, Sword-fish, and not only other in- 

 credible fish, but you may there see the Salamander, 

 several sorts of Barnacles, of Solan-Geese, the Bird 

 of Paradise, such sorts of Snakes, and such Birds 1 - 



