CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA Y. 41 



reported and written of them, and of the several creatures that be 

 bred and live in them, and those by authors of so good credit 

 that we need not to deny them an historical faith. 



As, namely, of a river in Epirus that puts out any lighted torch, 

 and kindles any torch that was not lighted. Some waters being 

 drunk, cause madness, some drunkenness, and some laughter to 

 death. The river Belarus in a few hours turns a rod or wand to 

 stone : and our Camden mentions the like in England, and the 

 like in Lochmere in Ireland. There is also a river in Arabia, of 

 which all the sheep that drink thereof have their wool turned into 

 a vermilion colour. And one of no less credit than Aristotle * 

 tells us of a merry river, the river Elusina, that dances at the 

 noise of music, for with music it bubbles, dances, and grows 

 sandy, and so continues till the music ceases, but then it pre- 

 sently returns to its wonted calmness and clearness. And Cam- 

 den tells us of a well near to Kirby, in Westmoreland, that ebbs 

 and flows several times every day : and he tells us of a river in 

 Surrey, it is called Mole, that after it has run several miles, being 

 opposed by hills, finds or makes -itself a way under ground,f and 

 breaks out again so far off that the inhabitants thereabout boast, 

 as the Spaniards do of their river Anus, that they feed divers 

 flocks of sheep upon a bridge. And lastly, for I would not tire 

 your patience, one of no less authority than Josephus, that learned 



* " In bis Wonders of Nature. This is confirmed by Ennuis, and Solon in his Holy 

 History." Note to \\vtjirst edition. 



t Defoe in his Tour through. England satisfactorily proves that this is a mistake, 

 and attempts to explain the cause of the opinions. B. Dray ton, Milton, and Pope 

 have, however, fallen into the same error: 



" Which like a noozling Mole 

 Doth noozle underneath." Polyolbion. 



" And underneath the earth, for three miles space doth creep." 



Ibid. Song 17. 

 "Or sullen Mole that runneth underneath." Milton on Rivers. 



"And sullen Mole that hides his diving flood." 



Pope's Windsor Forest, 1. 345. 



Mr Dallaway, in a privately printed and beautiful little volume, entitled Lethertrum 

 sive Horti Let/ierceani, containing etchings of views in the Vicarage of Letherhead, 

 thus alludes to the subject ; "The Mole is a river which has excited much curiosity and 

 discus-ion. There is a notion of very early establishment adopted by Camden and later 

 topographers, that 'it runs tinder ground.' But, generally speaking, its bed is an 

 :il)M>ib< -nt earth, above the surface of which it often occurs, during dry seasons, that no 

 .stream appears. Frequent banks or reefs of chalk intervene, and over these it is both 

 perennial and clear. The river Mole is so called from its being supposed to have a sub- 

 terraneous current : be this circumstance as it may, it differs from other rivers in having 

 its bed in certain places occasionally dry : various conjectures have been formed as to 

 this peculiarity. In some parts of the river where the bed is a little elevated, in small 

 detached pieces, there are holes which the country-people call Swallows. These are 

 dry apertures during summer, but in wet seasons are full of water, and at those times 

 the bed of tlic river becomes the channel of a rapid stream." Pp. 14, 15. 



