That the Order of the Seasons of the Year is quite inverted
under the _Torrid Zone_. For, whereas it should be then Summer, when the
Sun is near; and Winter, when the Sun is farther off: Under the _Torrid
Zone_ 'tis never lesse hot, than when the Sun is nearest; nor more hot,
than when the Sun is farthest off: So that to the people that live between
the _AEquinoctial_ and the _Tropicks_, Summer begins about _Christmass_, and
their Winter, about St. _Johns_ day. The reason whereof is, (_saith he_)
that when the Sun is directly over their Heads, it raises abundance of
vapors, and draws them so high, that they are presently converted into
Water by the coldnesse of the Air; whence it comes to passe, that then it
rains continually, which does refresh the Air; but when the Sun is farther
off, there falls no more rain, and so the Heat becomes insupportable.

2. He proves by many recent Relations, that the _Sources_ of the _Nile_ are
on this side of the _AEquinoctial_ in _AEthiopia_, of which he gives a very
accurate _Mappe_, correcting many faults which _Geographers_ are wont to
commit in the Description of the Kingdom of the _Abyssins_, which they
believe to be much greater than indeed it is. {306}

3. This supposed, he easily gives an account, why the _Nile_ yearly
overflows about the end of _June_: For, as at that time there falls much
rain in _AEthiopia_, it must needs be, that the _Nile_, whose source is in
that Country, should then overflow, when those rains begin, and subside,
when they cease.

There are besides, in this Book, two other _Tracts_. In the _first_, M.
_Vossins_ endeavours to maintain the Doctrine, he had deliver'd in his Book
_De Lumine_, and to shew, that the _Soul_ of Animals is nothing but _Fire_,
that there are no invisible Atoms; nor so much as any Pores, even in the
Skin of man. Here he treats also of _Refractions_, and alledges the
Examples of several persons, who have then seen the Sun by the means of
Refraction, when really He was under the _Horizon_.

In the _second_, He discourses of some points of the _Mechanicks_; and
relates among other things, that the _Arrows_ and _battering Rams (Aries)_
of the Antients did as much execution, as our _Muskets_ and _Canons_; and
then, that the Vehemence of the percussion depends as much upon the Length
of the percutient Body, as upon the velocity of the Motion. He adds, that
the Length of a Canon ought not to exceed 13 foot, and that a greater
length is n