CURIOUS CREATURES. 251 



Siria there is a River having great store of fish like 

 unto Samon-trouts, but no Jew can catch them, though 

 either Christian and Turk shall catch them in abundance, 

 with great ease." 



Pliny has some curious natural phenomena to tell us 

 about, of showers of Milk, Blood, Flesh, Iron, and Wool ; 

 nay, he even says that, the year of this woolly shower, 

 when Titus Annius Milo was pleading his own cause, 

 there fell a shower of baked tiles ! 



After this we can swallow Olaus Magnus's story of a 



rain of fishes very comfortably, especially as he supple- 

 ments it with showers of frogs and worms. 



He gives a curious story of the black river at the 

 New Fort in Finland : " There is a Fort in the utmost 

 parts of Finland that is under the Pole, and it belongs 

 to the Kingdom of Sweden, and it is called the New- 

 Fort, because it was wonderfull cunningly built, and 

 fortified by Nature and Art ; for it is placed on a round 

 Mountain, having but one entrance and outlet toward 

 the West ; and that by a ship that is tyed with great 

 Iron Chains, which by strong labour and benefit of 



