Page:The Strange Voyage and Adventures of Domingo Gonsales, to the World in the Moon.djvu/11

Rh Vallies stand full of them; Partridges, Pigeons, Moor-hens, and Peacocks breed here numerously, whereof a good Marksman may soon provide a Dinner for his Friends. On the Cliff-Islands, on the South, are thousands of grey and black Mews, or Sea-Pies, and white and coloured Birds, some with long, others with short Necks, who lay their Eggs on the Rocks, and suffer themselves to be taken with the Hand, gazing at their Surprizers, till they are knocked on the Head with Sticks.

From the Salt-water beating against the Clifts a Froth or Scum remains in some Places, which the Heat of the Sun so purifies, that it becomes white and good Salt; some of the Mountains yield Bole Armoniac, and a fat Earth like Terra Lemnia. The Sea will answer the Pains of a patient Fisherman, who must use an Angle, not a Net, because of the foul Ground and beating of the Waves; the chief are Mackrel, Roach, Carp, but differing in Colour from those among us; Eels as big as a Man's Arm, and well tasted Crabs, Lobsters, Oysters and Mussels as good as English.

It is in this Island that the Scene of that notable Fancy, called, The Man in the Moon, or a Discourse of a Voyage thither, by Domingo Gonsales is laid, written by a learned Bishop, saith the ingenious Bishop Wilkins, who calls it a pleasant and  well contrived Fancy, in his own Book, intituled, A Discourse of the New World, tending to prove that it is possible there may be another habitable World in the Moon; wherein among other curious Arguments he affirms, that this hath been the direct Opinion of divers antient, and some modern Mathematicians, and may probably be deduced from the Tenets of others, neither does it contradict any Principle of Reason nor Faith; and that as their World is our Moon, so our World is theirs. Rh