24 PATEICIUS VARTOMANNI. [169O. 



thought worthy to be fasten'd to tlie Wall of the Pallace of 

 >S'^, James's in London, belong'd to an Animal of a more 

 Monstrous size.'^ Our Seamen who had Patricius Vartomanni's 

 Eelation,^ cou'd not help laughing when they read what that 

 famous Author writes of Whales that piss'd, as high as the 

 Clouds. 



But if they had read Pliny and Solinus, venerable for their 

 Antiquity, with their Whales 960 Foot long, their inclination 

 to Laugh, had been chang'd into a mortal Fright, for fear of 

 being all swallow'd, Ship, Anchors, Sails, Masts, Men, and 

 Goods : For tho' those that are commonly call'd MUuralists, 

 have for a long time us'd themselves to affirm, that Jonas 

 cou'd not be swallow'd by a Whale, because the Throat of 

 these Animals is so straight, that hardly a Pilcher can go 

 down it ; yet every Body do's not believe what they say, as 

 a matter beyond all Dispute. There are few Men who have 

 themselves Dissected Whales, and have seen with their own 

 Eyes what sort of Throats they have ; besides, we must con- 

 sider there are several different kinds of these Marine 

 Monsters. And as I cannot refuse believing P. George 

 Fournier,^ a very curious Man, and very knowing in every 

 thing which belongs to the Sea, who assures us in his Rydro- 

 grajjhy, that two Men were found in tlie Belly of a Whale 

 that was thrown a-shoar at Valentia, on the Coast of Spain, 

 a Jaw of which is preserv'd in the Escurial, so I am satisfi'd 

 a Whale of the size Solinus speaks of, wou'd have swallow'd 

 us up as easily^ as they do Sack and Loaches in England. 



1 In Max. Misson's Memoirs and Observations in his travels over 

 England, 1697, translated by Mr. Ozell, 1719, p. 359 :— 



" Whale.] In one of the Courts of St. James's Palace, there is the 

 Rib of a Whale twenty feet long. Jonas would certainly have had 

 Elbow-room enough in the Belly of such a Fish, if the Monster's Throat 

 (or the Gate of the House) was proportionable to the rest ; that Point 

 s to be examin'd." 



2 Navigatio Vartomanni ; see Noviis Orhis of Hervagius, 1537. 



3 Hijdrog?-aphic, par M. George Fournier, Paris, 1667. 



