The medieval chronicler took delight in mentioning prodigies of nature that came to his attention, and of these prodigies earthquakes were among the most striking. The _Gesta regis Henrici Secundi_, under the year 1178, records a terrific earthquake at Oxenhale in England:[1043] some land owned by Hugh, bishop of Durham, rose up like a tower, so that its highest point was on a level with the summits of the hills and higher than the highest pinnacle of the churches (_templorum_); after remaining like this from nine o’clock until nightfall, it collapsed at sunset with a terrific noise that frightened all the onlookers. The earth then absorbed the tower of land and in its place there remained until the time of writing a well of immense depth as a perpetual testimony to the occurrence of this phenomenon. In the same chronicle, under the date of April 15, 1185,[1044] we find a more typical and less fantastic description of an earthquake felt throughout almost the entire length of England; rocks were shattered, stone houses fell in ruins, and the metropolitan church of Lincoln was broken asunder from top to bottom. _DESERTS_ The deserts of the Orient impressed the medieval writer in much the same way as mountains, by the obstacles and difficulties which they presented to the traveler. William of Tyre dilates[1045] on the terrors of drought in the desert and explains how the Saracens carry in great sacks on camels water sufficient to serve man and beast for many days at a time; he pictures impressively the horrors of the sand storms that may spring up at any time. In the Egyptian desert, he says, the land is so dry and barren that no manner of tree can grow there. The features of the desert are also described in the _Letter of Prester John_.[1046] This fabulous Christian potentate of the East tells us that in the great Sandy Sea which lies in his country the sands are disturbed by the wind and form endlessly moving waves like the waves of the real sea. But the analogy with the sea is carried a trifle too far when he goes on to assert that fish are found in the Sandy Sea. He adds that from certain mountains, three days’ journey away, a river of stones flows down and, running three days a week, sweeps both rocks and logs into the Sandy Sea, but they disappear in the sands and are never seen again. If we remove the halo of fable surrounding all this, we discern here an account of a desert of dunes, with dry watercourses entering it, a feature common enough in southwestern Asia and northern Africa. On the whole, however, little was known of deserts in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, and, though the waste places of Asia and India are constantly mentioned in the Romance of Alexander, the descriptions of them are wholly fanciful. _ISLANDS_ ORIGINS