~_Raine 40. dayes about August betweene Cancer and the Line._~
Therefore the Creatures that participate of heate and cold in a meane, are best and holsomest: And so it is in the choyse of love, the middell Zone betweene the two extreames is best, and it is therefore called _Zona temperata_, and is in the golden meane; and all those landes lying under that Zone, most requisite and fitt for habitation. In Cosmography, the two extreames are called, the one _Torrida Zona_, lying betweene the Tropickes, the other _Frigida Zona_, lying neare the poles: all the landes lying under either of these Zones, by reason they doe participate too { 13} much of heate or cold, are very inconvenient, and are accompanied with many evils. And allthough I am not of opinion with Aristotle,[203] that the landes under _Torrida Zona_ are alltogether uninhabited, I my selfe having beene so neare the equinoctiall line that I have had the Sunn for my Zenith and seene proofe to the contrary, yet cannot I deny but that it is accompanied with many inconveniences, as that Fish and Flesh both will taint in those partes, notwithstanding the use of Salt which cannot be wanting there, ordained by natures hande-worke; And that is a great hinderance to the settinge forth and supply of navigation, the very Sinewes of a florishing Commonwealth. Then barrennesse, caused through want of raines, for in most of those partes of the world it is seldome accustomed to raine untill the time of the Tornathees (as the Portingals[204] phrase is, who lived there) and then it will raine about 40. dayes together, which moisture serveth to fructify the earth for all the yeare after, duringe which time is seene no raine at all: the heate and cold, and length of day and night, being much alike, with little difference. And these raines are caused by the turning of the windes, which else betweene the Tropickes doe blow Trade, that is allwayes one way. For next the Tropicke of Cancer it is constantly North-East, and next the Tropicke of Capricorne it is Southwest; so that the windes comming from the Poles, do keepe the aire in those partes coole, and make it temperate and the partes habitable, were it not for those and other inconveniences.