The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation — Volume 12: America, Part IHakluyt, Richard
History
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation — Volume 12: America, Part I
Hakluyt, Richard
Discoveries in geography -- English; Voyages and travels
[Sidenote: Lib. 2. Meteor. cap 1.] The second part, namely that America and
Asia cannot be one continent, may thus be prooued, [Greek: kata taen taes
gaes koilotaeta rhei kai ton potamon to plaethos.] The most Riuers take
downe that way their course, where the earth is most hollow and deepe,
writeth Aristotle: and the Sea (sayeth he in the same place) as it goeth
further, so it is found deeper. Into what gulfe doe the Moscouian riuers
Onega, Duina, Ob, powre out their streames Northward out of Moscouia into
the sea? Which way doeth that sea strike: The South is maine land, the
Easterne coast waxeth more and more shalow: from the North, either
naturally, because that part of the earth is higher Aristot. 2. Met. cap.
1. or of necessitie, for that the forcible influence of some Northerne
starres causeth the earth there to shake off the Sea, as some Philosophers
doe thinke: or finally for the great store of waters engendered in that
frostie and colde climate, that the bankes are not able to holde them.
Alber, in 2. Meteor. cap. 6. From the North, I say, continually falleth
downe great abundance of water. So that this Northeasterne currant must at
the length abruptly bow towards vs South on the West side of Finmarke and
Norway: or else strike downe Southwest aboue Groneland and Iseland, into
the Northwest straight we speake of, as of congruence it doeth, if you
marke the situation of that Region, and by the report of M. Frobisher
experience teacheth vs. And M. Frobisher the further he trauailed in the
former passage, as he tolde me, the deeper always he found the Sea. Lay you
now the summe hereof together. The riuers runne where the chanels are most
hollow, the Sea in taking his course waxeth deeper, the Sea waters fall
continually from the North Southward, the Northeasterne current striketh
downe into the straight we speak of, and is there augmented with whole
mointaines of yce and snowe falling downe furiously out from the land vnder
the North pole. [Sidenote: Plin. lib. 2. cap. 67] Where store of water is,
there is it a thing impossible to want Sea, where Sea not onely doeth not
want, but waxeth deeper, there can be discouered no land, finally, whence I
pray you came the contrary tide, that M. Frobisher mette withall after he
had sailed no small way in that passage, if there be any Isthmos or
straight of land betwixt the aforesayd Northwesterne gulfe, and Mar del
Zur, to ioyne Asia and America together? That conclusion frequented in
scholes Quicquid præter, &c. was meant of the partes of the world then
knowen, and so it is of right to be vnderstood.
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