A certeine writer hath put downe the distance betweene the mouth of Elbe & Batzende in the South part of Island to be 400 leagues: from whence if you shall account the difference of longitude to the meridian of Hamburgh, Island must haue none of the forenamed longitudes in that place. I am able to proue by three sundry voyages of certaine Hamburgers, that it is but seuen dayes sailing from Island to Hamburgh. Besides all those Islands, which by reason of the abundance of sheepe, are called Fareyiar or more rightly Faareyiar,[Footnote: Faroe Islands.] as likewise the desert shores of Norway, are distant from vs but two dayes sailing. We haue foure dayes sailing into habitable Gronland; and almost in the same quantitie of time we passe ouer to the prouince of Norway, called Stad, lying betweene the townes of Nidrosia or Trondon, [Footnote: Trondheim.] and Bergen, as we finde in the ancient records of these nations.
SECTIO SECUNDA.
[Sidenote: Munsterus, Olaus magnus & reliqui.] In hac, æstiuo solstitio, sole signum Cancri transeunte, nox nulla, brumali Solstitio proinde nullus dies. Item, Vadianus. In ea autem Insula quæ longe Supra Arcticum circulum in amplissimo Oceano sita est, Islandia hodie dicta, & terris congelati maris proxima, quas Entgronlandt vocant, menses sunt plures sine noctibus.
Nullum esse hyemali solstitio diem, id est, tempus quo sol supra horizontem conspicitur in illo tantum Islandiæ angulo, si modò quis est, fatemur, vbi polus ad integros 67. gradus attollitur. Holis autem, quæ est sedes Episcopalis Borealis Islandiæ, sita etiam in angustissima & profundissima conualle, latitudo est circiter grad. 65. 44. min. vt à Domino Gudbrando eiusdem loci Episcopo accepimus, & illic diem breuissimum habemus ad minimum duarum horarum, in meridionali autem Islandia longiorem, vt ex artificum tabulis videre est. Vnde constat nec Islandiam vltra Arcticum circulum positam esse, nec menses plures noctibus in æstiuo, vel diebus in brumali solstitio carere.
The same in English.
THE SECOND SECTION.
[Sidenote: Munsterus, Olaus Magnus and others.] In this Iland, at the Summer solstitium, the Sun passing thorow the signe of Cancer, there is no night, and therefore at the Winter solstitium there is no day. Also: Vadianus. But in that Iland, which farre within the artic circle is seated in the maine Ocean, at this day called Island, and next vnto the lands of the frozen sea, which they call Engrontland, there be many moneths in the yere without nights.
At the solstitium of winter, that there is no day (that is to say, no time, wherein the Sunne is seene aboue the horizon) we confesse to be true onely in that angle of Island (if there be any such angle) where the pole is eleuated full 67. degrees. But at Holen (which is the bishops seat for the North part of Island, and lieth in a most deepe valley) the latitude is about 65. degrees and 44. minutes, as I am enformed by the reuerend father, Gudbrand, bishop of that place: and yet there, the shortest day in all the yere is at least two houres long, and in South-Island longer, as it appeareth by the tables of Mathematicians. [Sidenote: Island is not within the circle arctic.] Heerehence it is manifest, first that Island is not situate beyond the arctic circle: [Footnote: This is true, except for the very small portion of Iceland round about Cape North.] secondly, that in Island there are not wanting in Summer solstitium many nights, nor in Winter solstitium many dayes.
SECTIO TERTIA.
[Sidenote: Musterus Saxo.] Nomen habet à glacie quæ illi perpetuo ad Boream adheret Item. A latere Occidentali Noruagiæ Insula, quæ Glacialis dicitur, magno circumfusa Oceano repentur, obsoletæ admodum habitationis tellus, &c. Item, Hæc est Thyle, nulli veterum non celebrata.