As namely of a river in Epirus that puts out any lighted torch, and
kindles any torch that was not lighted. Some waters being drunk, cause
madness, some drunkenness, and some laughter to death. The river
Selarus in a few hours turns a rod or wand to stone: and our Camden
mentions the like in England, and the like in Lochmere in Ireland.
There is also a river in Arabia, of which all the sheep that drink thereof
have their wool turned into a vermilion colour. And one of no less
credit than Aristotle, tells us of a merry river, the river Elusina, that
dances at the noise of musick, for with musick it bubbles, dances, and
grows sandy, and so continues till the musick ceases, but then it
presently returns to its wonted calmness and clearness. And Camden
tells us of a well near to Kirby, in Westmoreland, that ebbs and flows
several times every day: and he tells us of a river in Surrey, it is called
Mole, that after it has run several miles, being opposed by hills, finds or
makes itself a way under ground, and breaks out again so far off, that
the inhabitants thereabout boast, as the Spaniards do of their river
Anus, that they feed divers flocks of sheep upon a bridge. And lastly,
for I would not tire your patience, one of no less authority than
Josephus, that learned Jew, tells us of a river in Judea that runs swiftly
all the six days of the week, and stands still and rests all their sabbath.

But I will lay aside my discourse of rivers, and tell you some things of
the monsters, or fish, call them what you will, that they breed and feed
in them. Pliny the philosopher says, in the third chapter of his ninth
book, that in the Indian Sea, the fish called Balaena or Whirlpool, is so
long and broad, as to take up more in length and breadth than two acres
of ground; and, of other fish, of two hundred cubits long; and that in the
river Ganges, there be Eels of thirty feet long. He says there, that these
monsters appear in that sea, only when the tempestuous winds oppose
the torrents of water falling from the rocks into it, and so turning what
lay at the bottom to be seen on the water's top. And he says, that the
people of Cadara, an island near this place, make the timber for their
houses of those fish bones. He there tells us, that there are sometimes a
thousand of these great Eels found wrapt or interwoven together He
tells us there, that it appears that dolphins love musick, and will come
when called for, by some men or boys that know, and use to feed them;
and that they can swim as swift as an arrow can be shot out of a bow;
and much of this is spoken concerning the dolphin, and other fish, as
may be found also in the learned Dr. Casaubon's Discourse of Credulity
and Incredulity, printed by him about the year 1670.

I know, we Islanders are averse to the belief of these wonders; but there
be so many strange creatures to be now seen, many collected by John
Tradescant, and others added by my friend Elias Ashmole, Esq., who
now keeps them carefully and methodically at his house near to
Lambeth, near London, as may get some belief of some of the other
wonders I mentioned. I will tell you some of the wonders that you may
now see, and not till then believe, unless you think fit.