CHAP. I. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 107 



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 

 waters falling from the rocks into it, and so turning 

 what lay 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 inter- 

 woven 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 Tradescant +, and 



* Mericy son of Isaac Casaulon, born at Geneva in 1599, but educated 

 at Oxford, was, for his great learning, preferred to a Prebend in the 

 Cathedral of Canterbury, and the Rectory of Ickhani near that city. Oliver 

 Cromwell would have engaged him by a pension of 300/. a year, to write 

 the history of his time, but Casaubon refused it. Of many books extant 

 of his writing, that mentioned in the text is one. He died in 1671, 

 leaving behind him the character of a religious man^ loyal to his Prince, 

 exemplary in his life and conversation, and very charitable to the poor. 

 Atbcn. Oxoa. Vol. II. 485, edit. 1721. 



f There were, it seems, three of the Tradescants, grand-father, f-ither, 

 and son : the son is the person here meant : the two former were Garden- 

 ers to Queen Elizabeth, and the latter to King Charles the First. They 

 were all great botanists, and collectors of natural and other curiosities, 

 and dwelt at South Lambeth in Surrey ; and dying there, were buried in 

 Lambeth Church-yard. Mr. Ashmole contracted an acquaintance with 

 the last of them, and together with his wife, boarded at his house for a 

 summer, during which Ashmole agreed for the purchase of Tradescant's 

 collection, and the same was conveyed to him by a deed of gift from 

 Tradescant and his wife. Tnidescant soon after died, and Ashmole was 

 obliged to file a bill in Chancery for the delivery of the curiosities, and 

 succeeded in his suit. Mrs. Tradescant, shortly after the pronouncing 

 the decree, was found drowned in her pond. This collection, with what 

 additions he afterwards made to it, Mr. Ashmole gave to the University 



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