An history of the wonderful things of nature set forth in ten severall classes wherein are contained I. The wonders of the heavens, II. Of the elements, III. Of meteors, IV. Of minerals, V. Of plants, VI. Of birds, VII. Of four-footed beasts, VIII. Of insects, and things wanting blood, IX. Of fishes, X. Of man / written by Johannes Jonstonus, and now rendred into English by a person of quality.

Artic. 2. Of the Miracles of some Islands.

AS Nature hath given Islands, so she hath bestowed on some, sin∣gular prerogatives. There is an Island in a certain Lake, about the entring of Nilus, that hath Groves, Woods, and great buildings upon it, yet they flote, and it is driven every way with the wind, Mela, l. 1. c. 5. In the Lake Vadimonis, and Cutilia, there is a dark Wood, that is never seen a night and a day in the same place, Plin. l. 2. c. 95. Of the latter Macrobius speaks; l. 1. Satur. c. 7. The Pela∣gi found an Island in the Lake Curilia, for there are large feilds for grasse, whether it were a continent, or the mud of the Lake, it is handsomly trim∣med up, and fitly joyned with twigs and Trees like a vaste Wood, and floats every way with the Sea floods, that from hence we may credit the relation of Delus, which hath high Mountaines and large Champion ground, yet floats on the Sea. The Calaminae so called, in Lydia, are not only driven by the winds, but by long poles, whither one please, and many Citizens escaped by that means in Mithridates Warr, Plin: l. 2. c. 95.

In the great Lake Tarquiniense in Italy, there are two that carry woods, sometimes they are of a three square figure, sometimes round in compasse, when the winds drive them, but they are never four square. In Garumna a River in Spain, the Island A••ros is pendulous, and lifted up with the waters increasing, Mela l. 3. c. 1. Also in Nymphaeum there are small ones called Saltuares, because in singing of a consort they move at the strokes of the musicall paces: Besides these, in the Fortunatae, Fennel gigant growes as big as a Tree, Solin. c. 58. In Madera, grapes hang down upon four branches, the skins fill'd with juice, want a kernel, they are ready to gather in March. Cada∣must••s, when Columbus found out the Island Hispaniola, he mowed Wheat on the 30 of March, that was sowen in the beginning of Fe∣bruary; In this short time the ears grew so great, that they were as long and a big as a mans Arm: Each of them contain'd 2000 grains, Peter Martyr in Sum. Indiae. There are fresh Melons every quarter of the year, Ovetan. Sum. c. 81. Historiar. l. 11. c. 1. so great, that one man can hardly carry one upon his shoulders. Grasse mowed will in five dayes grow a cubit high again. Tyles, two Islands in the Persian Gulph, the Land of them exceeds all other places for this rarity, that no Tree that growes there ever wants leaves, Solin. c. 53. In the Island Ormutium no living creature is found, nor any Fountain-water; Manna falls down with the night dew, Polus l. 3. c. 4. Dogs will not come into Sigaron an Island of Arabia Foelix; put them there, and they die running mad, Plin. l. 6. c. 28. In Ithaca, Hares brought thither from other places cannot live, Aristot. histor. Animal. l. 8. c. 28. Ebu∣sus, one of the Baleares, hath no Serpents at all, Plin. l. 10. c. 29. In Creta there lives no Owl; bring one thither, it will die: and in the same Island there is no mischievous living Creature besides the Spi∣der Philangium. Cyprus in former times was so impatient of graves, that it would cast forth the next night, bodies buried in the day.

Ericus the first Danish King was brought dead to Jerusalem by the winds, who was intended for the same place, Saxo Gram. l. 12. In the Island Cephalonia there is a River that hath on one side an infinite multitude of Grashoppers, but none on the other side, Aristot. histor. Animal. l. 8. c. 28. In Cumana an Island of the New World, the Cobwebs of Spiders are knit so fast, that they cannot be broken, Hispan. p. 5. c. 15. Iron that is dug up in Ilva, cannot be melted there, Bertius in descript. Ilvae. To conclude this, in the Arm of the Sea, by Fortha, there is the Island Magotia; In this Birds build, like Wild-Geese, in such great multitudes, that the 100 Garrison Soul∣diers that defend the Fort Bassus, feed on no other meat than fresh fish, brought in hourly by these birds; nor do they use any other wood but the sticks to make fires, which the birds bring to build their Nests. Bellovadius; and from him, Thuan. in histor.