}o The Natural Hi/lory 



ers, I think we have little reafon to doubt, fince we have them 

 not at all, or but very weak in any Summer, or the dryer Winters : 

 fuch are thofe that fore-tell (and naturally enough) the fcarcity 

 and dearnefs of Corn and Vi&uals ; whereof that of Ajfenton, near 

 Henly upon Thames, is one of the moft eminent that I know of in 

 England '; and no queftion is the fame mentioned by Johannes Eu- 

 feb. Nierembergim % in his Book (as he calls it) of the Miracles of 

 Nature. In Britannia territorio Chiltrenfi funtfontesmulti,&c. by 

 which, I fuppofe, he mult mean the Chiltern Country o$ Oxford- 

 fiire, There are, fays he, many Springs, which in fertile years are 

 always dry ; but before any dcjeft, as the Harbingers of an approach- 

 ing dearth , tkefe waters get loofe, and at it were breaking prifon, they 

 quickly unite into a forcible ftream. And fo they did lately, in An. 

 16 74. with that violence,that feveral Mills might have been driven 

 with the Current ; and had not the Town of Henly made fome 

 diverfion for them, their Fair Mile muft have been drowned for 

 a confiderabletime. Of thefe there are many in the County of 

 Kent, which I know not for what reafon they call Nailbourns 

 there, and prefcribe them (fome will) a certain time for their 

 running, as once in feven, ten, or fifteen years. But the certain 

 natural principle of fuch Springs, altogether depending upon 

 an uncertain caufe, no heed is to be given to fuch kind offtories,^ 

 they being equally as vain as the perfons that broach'd them. 



19. Befide thefe conftant and intermitting Rivulets, that al- 

 ways difcharge themfelves into Seas or Lakes, we have others 

 here of a peculiar kind that empty themfelves into neither of 

 them ; but as they firftrofe out of the Earth, fo prefently after 

 a fhort ftay on it, ingulf themfelves again, and are no more 

 feen. Two of thefe there are at Shot -over Foreft, both rifing as 

 I take it on the north fide of the hill ; the one not far from He d- 

 dington Quarry-pits, is conftantly fed with a double Spring, yet 

 after it has run about two Bows fhoot, is received by a rocky fub- 

 terraneous indraught, and appears no more : for though fome have 

 thought it to come forth again at the Pool of a Mill not far from 

 it, yet after diligent fearch I could find no fuch matter. Ano- 

 ther there is not far from Forefi-hill, and I think in the Grounds 

 of Sir Timothy Tyrrill, which fomtimes in Winter runs with that 

 violence,and has worn its In-let to fuch a capacity, that it can and 

 has received an Ox. , Dt M iracuLNat . /lb . 2 . t . i6 , 



20. Other 



