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The Weird Lady is an astonishing piece for a lad of twenty-one it begins with, "The swevens came up round Harold the Earl, Like motes in the sunnès beam" and it ends with the stanza: A white dove out of the coffin flew; Earl Harold's mouth it kist; He fell on his face, wherever he stood; And the white dove carried his soul to God Or ever the bearers wist.

And thus haue wee measured the force of the Sunnes greatest heate, the hottest dayes in the yeere, vnder the Equinoctiall, that is in March and September, from sixe till after tenne of the clocke in the morning, and from two vntill Sunne set.

The Paracoussy Satourioua had no sooner ended his ceremonies and had taken a viewe of all his company, but he embarked himselfe, and vsed such diligence with his Almadies or boates, that the next day two houres before the Sunnes set, he arriued on the territories of his enemies about eight or tenne leagues from their villages.

And againe, our night is very short, wherein cold vapours vse to abound, being but sixe or eight houres long, whereas theirs is alwayes twelue houres long, by which two aduantages of long, dayes and short nights, though we want the equalitie of Angle, it commeth to passe that in Sommer our heat here is as great as theirs is there, as hath bene proued by experience, and is nothing dissonant from good reason. Therefore whosoeuer will rightly way the force of colde and heat in any region, must not onely consider the Angle that the Sunne beames make, but also the continuance of the same aboue the Horizon. As first to them vnder the Equinoctiall the Sunne is twice a yeere at noone in their Zenith perpendicular ouer their heads, and therefore during the two houres of those two dayes the heat is very vrgent, and so perhaps it will be in foure or fiue dayes more an houre euery day, vntill the Sunne in his proper motion haue crossed the Equinoctiall; so that this extreme heat caused by the perpendicular Angle of the Sunne beames, endureth but two houres of two dayes in a yeere. But if any man say the Sunne may scalde a good while before and after it come to the Meridian, so farre foorth as reason leadeth, I am content to allow it, and therefore I will measure and proportion the Sunnes heat, by comparing the Angles there, with the Angles made here in England, because this temperature is best knowen vnto vs. As for example, the 11. day of March, when vnder the Equinoctiall it is halfe houre past eight of the clocke in the morning, the Sunne will he in the East about 38. degrees aboue the Horizon, because there it riseth alwayes at six of the clocke, and moueth euery houre 15. degrees, and so high very neere will it be with vs at London the said eleuenth day of March at noone. And therefore looke what force the Sunne hath with vs at noone, the eleventh of March, the same force it seemeth to haue vnder the Equinoctial at half an houre past eight in the morning, or rather lesse force vnder the Equinoctiall, For with vs the Sunne had bene already sixe houres aboue the horizon, and so had purified and clensed all the vapours, and thereby his force encreased at noone; but vnder the Equinoctiall, the Sunne hauing bene vp but two houres and an halfe, had sufficient to doe, to purge and consume the cold and moyst vapours of the long night past, and as yet had wrought no effect of heate. And therefore I may boldly pronounce, that there is much lesse heate at halfe an houre past eight vnder the Equinoctiall, then is with vs at noone:

Yet because wee haue a longer continuance of the Sunnes presence aboue our Horizon then they haue vnder the Equinoctial; by this continuance the heat is increased, for it shineth to vs 16. or 18. houres sometime, when it continueth with them but twelue houres alwayes.

Therefore I gather, that vnder the Tropickes is the hotest place, not onely of Torrida Zona, but of any other part of the world, especially because there both causes of heate doe concurre, that is, the perpendicular falling of the Sunne beames two monethes together, and the longer abode of the Sunnes presence aboue the Horison.

Some with ouer-straining themselues receiued hurts not a little dangerous, some hauing their bellies broken, and others their legs made lame. And about this time the yce began to congeale and freeze about our ships sides a night, which gaue vs a good argument of the Sunnes declining Southward, and put vs in mind to make more haste homeward.

As for continuall snow on tops of mountaines, it is there no otherwise then is in the hotest part of the middle Zone, where also lieth great snow all the Summer long vpon tops of mountaines, because there is no sufficient space for the Sunnes reflexion, whereby the snow should be molten. Then it appeareth that not onely the middle Zone but also the Zones about the poles are habitable.

Where, on the contrary he passeth from Europe and Afrike vnto America ouer the Ocean, from whence it draweth and carieth with him abundance of moyst vapours, which doe qualifie and infeeble greatly the Sunnes reuerberation vpon this countrey chiefly of Newfound land, being so much to the Northward.

And firste as touching the frost and fresing of the seas, it is supposed that the frozen zone is not habitable, and seas innauigable by reason of the vehemencie of cold, by the diuine creator allotted to that part of the world, and we are drawn into that absurdity of this opinion by a coniectural reason of the sunnes far distance and long absence vnder the horizon of the greatest parte of that zone, whereby the working power of colde perfourmeth the fulnesse of his nature, not hauing any contrary disposition to hinder the same and when the Sunne by his presence should comfort that parte of the world, his beames are so far remoued from perpendicularitie by reason of his continuall neerenes to the horizon, as that the effectes thereof answere not the violence of the winters cold.